ABSTRACT
Noncommercial farm enterprises include all agricultural activities whose products are consumed primarily by the farm family itself. The category includes the activities that result in small cash sales or trades that are incidental to the farm’s principal commercial enterprises. The most important noncommercial activities are carried on close to the farmer’s house. This area has different names in different countries: in Indonesia; in the United States it is the farmyard. A well-developed farmyard planting essentially mimics the tropical forest ecosystem, replacing the native plant types with economically useful species. Development of the three-layer system of farmyard planting is most advanced on the Indonesian island of Java, where farmers have become expert in selecting and managing the most appropriate species. Trees scattered in grazing areas or in commercial crop fields are common in much of the tropics. The trees in grazing areas where the climate is unusually hot are valuable for the shade they afford the animals.
