Socio-economic determinants of growing trees on farms in the middle hills of Nepal

TY - JOUR

T1 - Socio-economic determinants of growing trees on farms in the middle hills of Nepal

AU - Oli, B.N.

AU - Treue, Thorsten

AU - Larsen, Helle Overgaard

PY - 2015/10/22

Y1 - 2015/10/22

N2 - On-farm tree growing is potentially important for livelihood strategies and forest conservation, and varies greatly according to local contexts. A detailed knowledge base is therefore needed, requiring, inter alia, the documentation of factors associated with growing trees on farms. The present study surveyed 304 randomly sampled households in ten community forestry user groups in Nepal, eliciting data on demographics, income and consumption of tree products. All trees on households’ farm land were registered by species. Farmers had on average 65 trees per hectare and a total of 92 species were found. The Shannon–Wiener index was 2.46 and Simpson’s Dominance index was 0.15. Trees on farmland contributed on average 43 % of households’ firewood and fodder consumption. Apparent determinants of tree growing were identified through OLS regression; they included size of land and livestock holdings, education and firewood consumption, while income, ethnicity and sex of household head were not significant. Households’ network and distance between household dwellings and the forest were negatively related with on-farm tree growing. Findings indicate that community forestry practices work to the detriment of the poorest households.

AB - On-farm tree growing is potentially important for livelihood strategies and forest conservation, and varies greatly according to local contexts. A detailed knowledge base is therefore needed, requiring, inter alia, the documentation of factors associated with growing trees on farms. The present study surveyed 304 randomly sampled households in ten community forestry user groups in Nepal, eliciting data on demographics, income and consumption of tree products. All trees on households’ farm land were registered by species. Farmers had on average 65 trees per hectare and a total of 92 species were found. The Shannon–Wiener index was 2.46 and Simpson’s Dominance index was 0.15. Trees on farmland contributed on average 43 % of households’ firewood and fodder consumption. Apparent determinants of tree growing were identified through OLS regression; they included size of land and livestock holdings, education and firewood consumption, while income, ethnicity and sex of household head were not significant. Households’ network and distance between household dwellings and the forest were negatively related with on-farm tree growing. Findings indicate that community forestry practices work to the detriment of the poorest households.

U2 - 10.1007/s10457-015-9810-1

DO - 10.1007/s10457-015-9810-1

M3 - Journal article

SN - 0167-4366

VL - 89

SP - 765

EP - 777

JO - Agroforestry Systems

JF - Agroforestry Systems

IS - 5

ER -