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Abstract
The cultivation of different plants around homesteads for subsistence and cash income has been a long tradition in Bangladesh. This study explores stand structure, composition, and biodiversity within the homestead agroforests of the drought-prone, northwestern region of Bangladesh. In 96 randomly selected homesteads within 3 study villages, we identified 56 tree species. Among those, Mangifera indica (mango) was the most popular fruit bearing species. Four non-parametric diversity indices were derived to provide a characterization of biodiversity. The Sørenson similarity index was also used to compare the similarity of species among different landholding size classes. The overall Shannon-Wiener biodiversity index and Pielou's evenness index values were 1.82 and 0.45, respectively. This study confirms that the farmers had strong preference for fruit species over timber yielding ones, and because of better growth performance natives were preferred over exotics.
Acknowledgments
The authors acknowledge the fellowship granted to the first author by the Ministry of Education, Culture, Science, and Sports (MEXT) of the Japanese Government for Master's and PhD research. The comments and suggestions of Dr. Yasushi Furukawa and three anonymous reviewers are gratefully acknowledged. The authors also acknowledge the patience, contributions, and cooperation of farmers in the study area.