Integrated bamboo + pine homegardens: A unique agroforestry system in Ziro Valley of Arunachal Pradesh, India

Throughout the history of agriculture, the power of human ingenuity in experimenting with new ideas of crops and cropping (and farming) systems has been evident as illustrated by an enormous diversity of the so-called “indigenous” and “traditional” systems around the world. While tracing the history of development of agroforestry, several authors have described how many of the agroforestry systems of today have evolved from such indigenous systems (Nair 2001; Kumar & Nair 2006; Kumar & Nair 2011; Miller & Nair 2006). For example, homegardening, a major agroforestry practice today and one of the oldest forms of agriculture in Southeast Asia, is reported to have been associated with fishing communities living in the moist tropical region about 13 000 to 9 000 B.C. (Wiersum 2006). The dehesa (animal grazing under trees) system of Spain and other parts of southern Europe is reportedly 4500 years old (Rigueiro-Rodríguez et al. 2008). Most of such systems are forms of subsistence agriculture, of which a classical example is shifting cultivation. In spite of it being disparaged as unsustainable and resource-depleting, several forms of shifting cultivation are still being practiced by millions of poor farmers in the tropics (Cairns 2007 2015). While many such systems have given way to mechanized and modern forms, especially in the industrialized world, numerous indigenous systems are still prevalent in many parts of the developing world (Nair 1989). Even in industrialized regions, some forms of traditional systems that involve the principles of agroforestry are still being practiced (e.g., Herzog 1998). The satoyama system of Japan (www.satoyama-initiative.org), though strictly not a subsistence system, also embodies some of the ecological characteristics of several indigenous systems of the tropics. 

These age-old practices of growing crops and trees together were ignored or bypassed in the development of modern agriculture and forestry, which focused on growing trees and crops in single-species (monocultural) production systems for maximizing their production. Moreover, agriculture and forestry were often treated separately although these two sectors are usually interwoven on the landscape and share many common goals. The realization of the adverse ecological and social consequences of input-intensive monocultural production systems led to the recognition and appreciation by the development community of the values of traditional, age-old practices of growing trees and crops together on the same unit of land (Nair 2007). Today, the significance of such traditional systems to rural livelihoods and the diverse and stable supply of economic products and benefits derived from them are more appreciated than ever before (Shackleton & Paumgarten 2008). It is also getting recognized that understanding the historical development of indigenous systems will provide valuable information for the design of ecologically desirable agroforestry land-use systems (Miller and Nair 2006), and that researchers have much to learn from the insights of local people who are acknowledged within their own communities as experts on local plants (Cunningham 2001). Thus, documenting the traditional wisdom of the indigenous communities has gained significant attention lately (Jeeva 2006; Sarkar & Maitra 2001). Along with that, efforts have also been made to understand the modus operandi of some of the highly successful systems that have been developed by new settlers in some parts of the world, a typical example being the “celebrated” homegarden system practiced by Japanese settles in Tomé-Açu, Pará state, northeastern Brazil (Yamada & Osaqui 2006).

 Numerous indigenous systems have been documented in varying levels of details; but many more remain to be even identified let alone studied and documented. Based on what we know about the systems that have been identified, each one is quite unique in its structure and composition, and the way in which its management practices have been developed in harmony with the local ecological and socio-cultural characteristics. Thus, each system is a location-specific entity that has been developed through repeated trial-and-error type of “experimentation” and improvised over the years by local farmers with practically no external help or support. The rural indigenous Apatani farmers in Ziro Valley of Arunachal Pradesh, India, have developed an integrated “bamboo + pine homestead agroforestry system” over the years, the knowledge on the details of which has so far been limited to the relatively small number of practitioners of the system. With the recent recognition of Ziro Valley as a tentative UNESCO World Heritage Site for its "extremely high productivity" and the "unique" way of preserving the ecology (Dollo et al. 2009), this hitherto-unknown land-use system is now receiving wider attention. This paper presents an analytical description of this unique bamboo + pine indigenous system.