2 Cropping systems for fruit Fruit is produced in almost every farming system. Some fruits are collected in the natural vegetation (‘in the wild’). In shifting cultivation systems, fruit trees are often planted along with the field crops after a plot has been cleared. During the first year or two of the next fallow period the resurging natural vegetation is slashed to enable the fruit trees to survive and bear fruit. | 2 Cropping systems for fruit Fruit is produced in almost every farming system. Some fruits are collected in the natural vegetation in the wild . In shifting cultivation systems fruit trees are often planted along with the field crops after a plot has been cleared. During the first year or two of the next fallow period the resurging natural vegetation is slashed to enable the fruit trees to survive and bear fruit. In this way Amazon Indians enrich the fallow vegetation with a range of indigenous fruit crops such as canis-tel Amazon tree grape pejibaye and other palms. The home garden From the more permanent plot around the hut of the shifting cultivator to the home garden of the settled farmer is only one step. The original meaning of the word garden as well as hortus from which horticulture is derived is fence or enclosure . Horticultural crops are grown within the enclosure field crops outside it. The enclosure offers protection so that the family not passing goats and school children can gather the harvest. There are a great many garden crops. They are grown on a small scale - partly because they are perishable - and together they fill the garden throughout the year making protection all the more necessary. Protection is easiest if the garden surrounds the house the home garden. This also facilitates crop care. Many husbandry techniques explained in textbooks but rarely seen in the field such as watering by hand composting mulching pruning trellising and simple crop protection measures are common in the home garden. Protection and care ensure that the home garden supplies small quantities of fruits vegetables and herbs to supplement the diet but also medicinal products some fodder for the animals and amenities such as wooden posts and bamboos. Cropping systems for fruit 11 Orchards and plantations Near the growing towns some home gardens developed into market gardens and further specialisation led to new professions vegetable grower fruit grower .
