Islam, M.A.Ummar Atta2020-07-042020-07-042017http://krishikosh.egranth.ac.in/handle/1/5810148574M.Sc Thesis submitted to SKUAST KashmirThe study investigated the diversity of non-timber forest products (NTFPs) supporting the livelihood security and the socio-economic and bio-physical factors influencing the NTFPs exploitation in Gurez valley of Kashmir. Multi-stage proportionate random sampling was employed to select the villages (10) and the households (103). Data were collected using both secondary sources and primary field survey. The primary data were collected by the personal interviews of the respondents through a well-structured pre-tested interview schedule and quasi-participant observation. Descriptive and inferential statistics were employed to analyze the data. The findings revealed that 151 NTFPs were collected from 115 species belonging to 95 genera and 56 families for livelihood security. Medicines remained the prime use category with 56 species whereas oil seeds, edible nut, toothbrush, detergent, mouth freshener were the least utilized (1) NTFPs. The NTFPs were mostly consumed as leaves (46) followed by root (27), fruit (14), twigs (21), flower (7), seed (6), entire plant (5), rhizome (5), bark (3), nut (3), cone (3), tuber (3), bulb (2), basidiocarp (2), stem (2), corm (1), resin (1), frond (1). Among the 151 NTFPs, maximum (66.09 %) were derivatives of herbs followed by shrubs (14.78 %), tree (12.17%), climber (4.35 %), fungi (1.74%) and fern (0.87%). The household total average annual income generated by the NTFPs was ₹ 21336.56 which is differentiated as maximum (34.42%) by the herbal medicines followed by spice (23.80%), cottage industry (14.90%), Shilajeet (13.65%), fungi (5.53%), edible fruits (2.06%), vegetables (2.04%), fuel wood (1.39%), edible nut (0.96%), fodder (0.71%), incense (0.29%), and beverages (0.23%). The total average employment (man-days annum-1) generated by the NTFPs was 270.85 which was distributed as maximum by the fodder (59.37%) followed by the cottage industry (14.46%), fuel wood (9.61%), vegetable (4.01%), edible fruit (2.69% ), spice (2.67%), herbal medicine (2.35%), fungi (1.68%), beverage (1.11%), edible seed (0.49%), detergent (0.34%), Shilajeet (0.27%), dye (0.26%), mouth freshener (0.26%), edible nut (0.21%), incense (0.13%), toothbrush (0.08%) and oil seed (0.02%). The household average gross annual income comprised of all off-farm and on-farm sources was ₹ 89094.28 which was differentiated as agriculture (27.96%), livestock (24.96%), NTFPs (23.95%), business (13.98%), service (5.99%), wage labour (2.50%) and others (0.66%). The composition of household average annual employment was 1020.29 man-days which was made up of agriculture (30.45%), livestock (27.36%), NTFPs (26.55%), business (9.13%), service (4.15%), wage labour (1.83%) and others (0.54%). Among the socio-economic and bio-physical factors education, size of family, size of land holding, herd size, main occupation, family labour, gross annual income, proximity to forest and frequency of forest visit were positively and significantly correlated with the NTFPs based livelihood whereas, the forest resource possession showed the negatively significant correlation. The relationship between age and the NTFPs based livelihood was non-significant. The regression co-efficient indicated that among the variables six variable namely, herd size, main occupation, gross annual income, proximity to forests, frequency of forest visits and forest resource possession were statistically significant in influencing the NTFPs-based livelihood and the R2(0.920) indicated that 92.00% of the variation in the NTFPs based income was explained by the household variables. Hence, the NTFPs deserve a planned and continuous attention of policy makers, scientists, social workers and extensionists for livelihood promotion and development.enNTFPsdiversityGurezForestryThesis