An Indian village agricultural ecosystem- case study of Ungra village, Part I: Main observations

Abstract The South Indian agricultural village of Ungra (population-932, households-149, total area-360·2 ha) has been studied as an ecosystem, with special emphasis on the production of biomass and its utilisation by humans and livestock. Following a description of the methodology used, this first part of the paper reports the main results of the ecosystem study. In particular, a quantitative report is given of the land use and cropping patterns, the above-ground plant biomass productivities, the disaggregation of the plant biomass into various components, the utilisation of these components, the food consumption by human beings and livestock, the materials and energy flow through the ecosystem, and its imports and exports.