Horizontal and Vertical Diversification of Specializations in Home gardens: A Case Study of Thruvanathapuram District of Kerala

Aim: To delineate extent of horizontal cum vertical integrations and to  analyze distribution of specializations based on the level of vertical diversification Study Design:  ‘Ex-post-facto’ and ‘explorative’ research designs were used for conducting the present study. Place and Duration of Study: The study was conducted in Thruvanathapuram district of Kerala in India during 2018-2020. Methodology: Specialized homegardens identified under ‘ICAR Niche Area Excellence project’ were selected for the study. Sixty specialised homegardens with  twelve homegardens each from each AEUs were selected for data enumeration. Results: Majority of specialized homegardens (60%) do have more than 4 tiers/levels of horizontal diversification whereas 40% have less than 4 tiers of diversification. Similarly, distribution of vertical diversification shows that 61.6% have less than 3 levels and 38.3 % have more than 3 levels of vertical diversification. Mean vertical diversification was found to be highest for livestock-cow (3.75) and least was for tubers and orchids (1) each. However 3 levels of vertical diversification was noticed for rubber, animal husbandry, coconut, goat, mushroom and aquaculture. Conclusion: Homegardens with specializations are the sustainable production system. If the competent authorities pay attention to the individual specializations of the system and give adequate thrust to the value addition of these specializations, then definitely homegardens can turn out to be better remunerative farming system fetching supplementary benefits.