HIMACHAL HIMALAYAN AGROECOSYSTEM STATUS - A CASE-STUDY

The village ecosystem is basically a land-vegetation-human-livestock ecosystem and is a focal unit of study under Diagnosis and Design methodology. The carrying capacity of the village system studied was 19.05 persons and the calculated carrying capacity of the system worked out to 11.96 persons. The pasture land-crop land calculated ratio (1.86) was less than the observed ratio (2.45), indicating a potential shortage of fodder. The models of human to draught animal pair ratio projected that the animals are not surplus though the time and motion value (0.48 ha/dap) was very low. The human-cattle ratio was in agreement with the observed values which justified the presence of cattle in the system. Despite low allocation of area for agricultural crops, their contribution to the total annual productivity of the system amounted to 66 per cent. Out of the total fuelwood demand of the system, 75% was met by fuelwood (gathered) and the rest was imported as wood waste from outside the system. Interestingly village women contributed 75% of the total human energy requirement of the system. Thus, this village ecosystem of the Himachal Himalaya is neither closed nor self sufficient-in fact it is highly dependent on the outer world for several vital items including food, fodder and fuel. The possibility and amount of improvement required in the various agroforestry components i.e. agriculture, pasture, trees, livestock and human beings for developing a sustainable ecosystem is discussed in this case study.