Agrobiodiversity and Homestead Gardens in Khandesh

Agrobiodiversity and biodiversity are just like two sides of a coin. The former mainly focuses on that past of biodiversity that has undergone selection and modification in long past by human civilization to serve better human needs. Man has also discriminated bioresourses to his advantage. The homestead garden is one such small-scale production system fitted to easy access to family needs for various purposes. Tribal farmers are treasure–trove of traditional knowledge experience and wisdom. Still they suffer from poverty malnutrition and ‘hidden hunger’ in India. They are primary stockholders of agrobiodiversity and cultigens in home gardens. However they are quite distanced away from value-addition and benefit-sharing that can be experimented in modern period. At this backdrop the present investigators studied with intense passion the agrobiodiversity home gardens and associated traditional knowledge of tribal farmers in Khandesh region of Maharashtra (India).