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31 March 2010 The role of women in traditional farming systems as practiced in homegardens: a case study in Sylhet Sadar Upazila, Bangladesh
Sayma Akhter, Mohammed Alamgir, Md. Shawkat Islam Sohel, Md. Parvez Rana, S. J. Monjurul Ahmed, Mohammad Shaheed Hossain Chowdhury
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Abstract

Forests cover only 6 to 8 percent of the total land area of Bangladesh. While agricultural expansion continues to massively deplete the natural forests, a well-managed homegarden practice is vital for reversing the existing trend and promoting the ecological balance of the country. An understanding of the role of women in homegarden management within a traditional farming system is important in expanding and improving the practice. This paper seeks to explore the participation of women in homegarden management activities, understanding the impact of homegardens on women's income and livelihoods and assessing women's awareness of homegarden-oriented activities that support forest conservation. The study demonstrates a number of important conclusions: (1) women are mostly involved in homegarden management-related activities (2) women are interested in conserving homegardens because they obtain such substantial benefits as food security, income, health care, and environmental benefits (3) women were found to be aware of home-garden conservation and tuned to motivating husbands, children, and neighbors to conserve the agro-biodiversity of homegardens. Findings suggest that increased involvement of women in a broad range of homegarden management activities is not only beneficial for their own socio-economic well-being, but also imperative for sustaining the livelihoods of their communities and for preserving the agro-biodiversity in homegardens.

© 2010 Sayma Akhter, Mohammed Alamgir, Md. Shawkat Islam Sohel, Md. Parvez Rana and Mohammad Shaheed Hossain Chowdhury. This is an open access paper. We use the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 license http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/ - The license permits any user to download, print out, extract, archive, and distribute the article, so long as appropriate credit is given to the authors and source of the work. The license ensures that the published article will be as widely available as possible and that the article can be included in any scientific archive. Open Access authors retain the copyrights of their papers. Open access is a property of individual works, not necessarily journals or publishers.
Sayma Akhter, Mohammed Alamgir, Md. Shawkat Islam Sohel, Md. Parvez Rana, S. J. Monjurul Ahmed, and Mohammad Shaheed Hossain Chowdhury "The role of women in traditional farming systems as practiced in homegardens: a case study in Sylhet Sadar Upazila, Bangladesh," Tropical Conservation Science 3(1), 17-30, (31 March 2010). https://doi.org/10.1177/194008291000300103
Received: 15 November 2009; Accepted: 10 February 2010; Published: 31 March 2010
KEYWORDS
Agroforestry
Bangladesh
forest conservation
traditional farming system
women
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