Contribution of farm tree to household economy of a community forest user group in Chitwan, Nepal.

摘要

The study was carried out to assess the contribution of farm tree on the household economy of the users of Kankali Community Forest in Chitwan, Nepal. Household survey, focus group discussion and key informant survey were used to get primary information. Stratified random sampling was used to select sample households on the basis of wealth class. A total of 200 households were taken for interview. People's dependence on fuel wood was found high. Rich people had more trees on their farm land as compared to medium and poor people. Farm trees were mostly used for fodder purpose and less for timber, fuel wood and fruits. Contribution of non-farm sources (salary, business, remittance, wage, etc.) to household economy was high (86.6%) followed by farm source (agriculture/livestock) (9.5%), forest (2.5%) and farm trees (1.3%). Percentage contribution of non-farm, agriculture/livestock and farm tree sources was more for rich households as compared to medium and poor households. Forest resource was a greater source of income for medium households than other two categories. Rich class households prefer to collect more timber, fuel wood and fodder from forest, medium households prefer to collect more grass, sand, mud and wild vegetables while poor people collect more poles, wild fruits and bamboo/rattan as compared to other classes of households. The perception of the people was found positive towards having farm tree and its importance to household economy though the percentage share of farm tree income for household economy was least.