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Diversity and change in homegarden cultivation in Indonesia
Abstract
Homegardens have been described as traditional agroforestry systems that are ecologically and socially sustainable. The concept of social sustainability has two dimensions: positive role to present livelihood conditions and ability to respond to socioeconomic changes. The dynamics of homegardens and its repercussions on social sustainability have received relatively little research attention. On the basis of results of extensive studies in Java and other parts of Indonesia, this article summarizes the historic and recent developments in the homegardening context. The structure and composition of homegardens depend both on their position in the overall farming system and on livelihood strategies of the managers. Rural transformations result in changes in livelihoods and farming systems, and have impacts on homegarden function and composition. The opinions of various authors on homegarden dynamics range from positive to negative; the former consider that changes in homegarden features are associated w ith socio-professional changes of villagers and the rural-urban interface, while the latter view these changes as indicative of the demise of a traditional system and argue for its revitalization. These different opinions represent different norms in assessing social sustainability of homegardens and differences in value judgments on the ideal structure of homegardens.
... Pekarangan didefinisikan sebagai kebun di sekitar tempat tinggal (Michon & Foresta 1993, Soemarwoto 1987. Pekarangan sudah dikenal sejak 3000 sebelum masehi sesuai (Soemarwoto 1987, Wiersum 2006) yang telah berevolusi selama berabad-abad mulai dari budaya hingga transformasi biologis yang merepresentasikan kesesuaian dengan kearifan dan budaya petani dengan lingkungan sekitar (Wiersum 2006). ...
... Pekarangan didefinisikan sebagai kebun di sekitar tempat tinggal (Michon & Foresta 1993, Soemarwoto 1987. Pekarangan sudah dikenal sejak 3000 sebelum masehi sesuai (Soemarwoto 1987, Wiersum 2006) yang telah berevolusi selama berabad-abad mulai dari budaya hingga transformasi biologis yang merepresentasikan kesesuaian dengan kearifan dan budaya petani dengan lingkungan sekitar (Wiersum 2006). ...
... Sistem agroforestri pekarangan sangat dinamis menyesuaikan preferensi dari pemilik rumah serta kondisi sosial ekonomi masyarakat sekitar. Misalnya perubahan struktural pekarangan dari daerah pedesaan menuju daerah perkotaan, ataupun perubahan fungsi dari pekarangan untuk memenuhi kebutuhan sehari-hari menjadi pekarangan berorientasi bisnis (Prihatini et al. 2018, Wiersum 2006. ...
Topik buku dipilih sebagai bagian dari upaya mengangkat praktik agroforestri tradisional di wilayah Pulau Jawa sebagai bagian penting dalam sejarah usaha produksi pangan dan kayu-kayuan. Sistem tumpangsari dan hutan rakyat yang berkembang di Pulau Jawa sebenarnya berbasis pada usaha produksi kayu, namun karena sifat usaha yang berjangka panjang, maka persoalan pemenuhan kebutuhan jangka pendek (yakni pangan) menjadi titik kritisnya. Pada satu sisi, fenomena adopsi masyarakat untuk menanam kayu pada lahan milik (disebut hutan rakyat) merupakan fakta yang positif, namun ternyata hal ini mengancam produksi pangan. Teknik budidaya tumpangsari
dan hutan rakyat adalah dua sisi mata uang yang saling melengkapi, dan berkembang seiring dengan dinamika sosial-ekonomi dan tantangan ekologi di Pulau Jawa yang sangat padat penduduk. Bagian awal buku ini yakni Bab 1-3 mengulas tentang sejarah perkembangan sistem tumpangsari dan hutan rakyat di Pulau Jawa. Dilanjutkan dengan Bab 4 yang membahas tentang perkembangan tutupan lahan melalui analisis spasial, dan contoh kasus perkembangan kedua sistem agroforestri tersebut. Terjadinya paradoks tutupan lahan diuraikan pada Bab 5, di mana hutan negara dimanfaatkan
untuk budidaya pangan, sedangkan lahan rakyat untuk budidaya kayu. Bab 6 membahas tentang teknik budidaya dan analisis profitabilitas pada kedua sistem tersebut, dan
Bab 7 membahas prospek masa depan pengelolaan hutan dan lahan di Pulau Jawa, khususnya peluang penerapan teknik agroforestri dalam mendukung upaya peningkatan produktivitas dan kualitas lahan. Secara keseluruhan, buku ini menganalisis berbagai sisi dinamika budidaya pangan dan kayu oleh petani, serta mendiskusikan keberlanjutannya di masa depan, untuk menjadi warisan sistem pertanian nusantara.
... Puri and Nair 2004). According to Wiersum (2006), homegardening was associated with the fishing communities inhabiting the moist tropical regions in Southeast Asia and it originated between 13,000 to 9,000 BCE, whereas Soemarwoto (1987) reported that the earliest available evidence of homegarden cultivation in Java, Indonesia, was around 3,000 BCE. suggest that the homegarden history in Amazonia corresponds with the evolution of agriculture and domestication of trees in ancient times, followed by the development of cultural complexes along the Amazon River and its main tributaries. ...
... Domestication of fruit trees and tuber crops may have corresponded with one another as the hunter-gatherers used to collect both fruits and tubers from the forests. Gradually, however, the accidental dissemination of seeds became more purposive with key species planted to ensure their usufructs (Wiersum 2006). It is also probable that the prehistoric people may have impulsively selected trees with larger fruit size, better quality, or other desirable features from the wild, besides assisting in their regeneration. ...
... They recognized six types of Nicaraguan homegardens: ornamental, handcrafting (providing space and shade for handicraft manufacturing), subsistence, handcrafting and mixed production (for consumption and income), mixed production, and minimal management. Wiersum (2006) (transitional) gardens. Proximity to urban centers is yet another criterion used to classify the homegarden systems into urban (within city limits), peri-urban (places on the fringes of urban areas), and rural (village) types. ...
Agroforestry homegardens consist of multispecies combinations of a variety of economically useful plants including trees, shrubs, vines, and herbaceous species, often grown in association with livestock, in small landholdings around or adjacent to the home. These unique farming systems founded on generations of experience and traditional knowledge provide sustenance to billions of households in the humid and subhumid tropics and subtropics. Several types of homegardens have been identified according to their differences in size (area), form, layout, zonation pattern, species composition, management objectives, and the dominant plant species or the level of urbanization. Some of the well-known homegardens, known by their locations, include those of Kerala (India), Java (Indonesia), Kandy (Sri Lanka), Chagga (Tanzania), Central America, and the Amazonia (Brazil), each with its unique historical as well as contemporary characteristics. Their enormous species diversity, which consists of food crops, medicinal plants, ornamentals, fruit trees, multipurpose trees, and fodder species, contributes to a variety of ecosystem services, and supports food-, and nutritional-, and livelihood security of millions of tropical smallholder farmers. Homegardens are also found in the temperate regions, but only to a limited extent in area and complexity compared to the tropics. Research on homegardens has mostly been limited to inventory and characterization of species diversity and descriptive accounts of ecosystem services. In the era of increasing emphasis on the market economy and yield maximization, the homegardens are not only being “ignored and left behind” but are also being transformed from their traditional subsistence outlook to market-oriented production enterprises.
... Home gardening has been widely accepted and practiced in various settings by subsistence families in developing countries. Many studies have shown that home gardening has been an essential part of the local food system and family farming in urban and rural areas to improve food security, nutrition, and livelihood [14][15][16][17][18]. In tropical countries, home gardens have diverse varieties of crops and are suitable to local microclimates. ...
... The household's socioeconomic status determined the garden composition, structure, cultivation intensity, and plant diversity [17]. ...
... To have an enriched and balanced diet, the families should aim to have a sufficient quantity and variety of their food supplies [100,103,104], and the addition of fruits and vegetables in a meal often makes other foods more palatable and can lead to overall increased food intake [100]. Various studies found that home gardens add the caloric intake and supplement staple-based diet with a substantial amount of proteins [47], vitamins [17,111], and minerals (International Institute for Rural Reconstruction, 1993 [111,112]. Therefore, households should take efforts to increase diversification of fruit and vegetable crops in their home gardens. ...
Home gardens are an essential component of the local food system and family farming worldwide. In Indonesia, a home food gardening program was initiated in the early 2010s to optimally utilize home yards for improving the adequacy of food consumption and nutrition intake of households. In the present challenging situation of Covid-19 pandemic, there has been a growing interest in home gardens to help mitigate food insecurity caused by food supply chain disruptions and the emergence of physical and economic barriers that limit access to food. This paper is a review of pertinent literature to find out the characteristics of home gardens and home gardening program in Indonesia and then examine their contribution to each pillar of food security: availability, access, utilization, and stability. The experiences of home gardens worldwide are reviewed to understand the global context of home gardens and food security. Literature reviews found a positive impact of home gardening program on food availability, access, and utilization. However, improving food stability through a home food gardening program is still a challenging task. This finding implies that the positive contribution of the home food gardening program to household food security is largely limited to the program period. Nevertheless, the program is still an important strategy to address food insecurity and nutrition deficiency of low-income households. Future research should assess factors affecting the sustainability of the program to derive viable models applicable in diverse circumstances. There is a need for research to assess the value and importance of home gardens as a coping strategy to reduce vulnerability and food insecurity in the present global Covid-19 pandemic.
... A study from Asia (Mohri et al., 2013), based on the works of Hutterer (1984) and Terra (1954) indicates that, for instance, javanese homegardens originated in the 7 th millennium BC, in Central Java and parts of East Java, expanding to West Java in the mid-18 th century. According to Wiersum (2006), the origin of southeast Asian tropical homegardens might be around 13,000-9,000 BC. ...
... In Indonesia, traditional Javanese homegardens are also referred as pekarangan (Wiersum, 2006). In Vietnam, diverse agri-aquacultural carried out near the domestic dwellings are distinguished as traditional integrated agriculture-aquaculture (IAA) system or Vuon-Ao-Chuong (VAC) system, which means Garden-Pond-Livestock pen (Trinh et al., 2003). ...
... Mendez (2000); 11. Mitchell and Hanstad (2004); 12. Wiersum (2006); 13. Kumar and Nair, (2006); 14. ...
Background. Considering the current importance of recognizing the potential of traditional agroecosystems, including homegardens in the sustainable development of many rural and urban communities, strategists and scientists around the world are showing increasing interest in their study. Objective. Analyze the scientific literature relevant to the scope and constraints of homegardens (HGs), and to identify gaps and research perspectives, especially for indigenous communities in Mexico. Methodology. A total of 335 studies published in the last decades (1986-2020) were collected from different databases using predefined keywords. All publications were organized and stored in the Zotero (2018) program. The trends of all the publications were analyzed using NVivo 12 Plus software. Results. The number of publications increased from the year 2000. About 70% of the publications analyzed were research articles in english. Of the total studies examined 239 (71.35%) were conducted in different parts of the world, of which 30% from Asia and the remaining 96 (28.65%) from Mexico, primarily in tropics. Most of these studies focused on ecological (62.98%), economic (20.29%), cultural (13.43%), social (7.46%) and multifunctional features (12.23%) of HGs. The same pattern was identified in the case of Mexico, with studies of 10.74%, 5.07%, 5.67%, 0.597%, and 3.58% focused on ecological, economic, cultural, social and the multifunctionality features of HGs respectively. Implications. The analysis of the scope and limitations of HGs contributes to identifying the need to carry out transdisciplinary research that reflects their whole dynamics as agroecosystems, in which, in addition to the ecological environment, there are various cultural aspects considered important in the indigenous communities of Mexico. Conclusions. The publications emphasized the importance of homegardens to provide multiple ecosystem functions and services to enhance human well-being. However, future research should reevaluate HGs based on a holistic multi-functional agriculture approach to promote them as one of the strategies conducive to improve family well-being. Also, it is suggested to evaluate the degree of sustainability of HGs based on its resilience and adaptation capacity to confront current challenges.
... Akan tetapi, saat ini pekarangan yang semula bersifat tradisional dan multikultur (Ninez, 1985;Wiersum, 2006;Galhena et al., 2013), kini banyak ditanami tanaman komersial dan monokultur (Abdoellah et al., 2006). Perubahan ini menyebabkan penurunan keanekaan hayati, mengurangi keseimbangan sosial, peningkatan input eksternal dan resiko bencana (Abdoellah et al., 2006). ...
... Pemanfaatan pekarangan di pedesaan sudah sangat beragam, tidak lagi hanya sebagai lahan bercocok tanam atau memelihara hewan ternak (Kubota et al., 2003). Selain ada yang bersifat tradisional dan multikultur (Ninez, 1985;Wiersum, 2006;Galhena et al., 2013), pekarangan saat ini banyak juga difungsikan sebagai pagar hidup dan ornamental (Abdoellah et al., 1986) dan diubah menjadi sumber pendapatan di luar pertanian seperti warung atau bengkel (Hadikusumah, 2005). ...
... Pekarangan dianggap sebagai sistem pertanian tradisional dan tertua, khususnya di Asia Tenggara, yang rendah penggunaan input sehingga sering disebut sebagai sistem agroforestri (Wiersum, 2006) atau agro-ecosystem (Soemarwoto et al., 1985) tradisional yang berkelanjutan secara sosio ekologis. ...
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... A homegarden is defined as ready-to-use traditional land located around residential areas that are planted with a number of plant species and maintained by family members and the crop production is intended for household consumption (Sherstha et al., 2001). One of the many factors that influence the diversity of homegarden plants is the culture of an ethnic group (Wiersum, 2006;Galhena et al., 2013). The homegarden is closely related to the life of the owner (Galluzzi et al., 2010). ...
... Moreover, homegardens with high plant diversity act as in situ conservation sites especially for local species (Sherstha et al., 2001). In the tropics, homegardens have high plant diversity but the threats to the preservation of plant diversity are quite alarming such as the need for land expansion due to population growth and transformation of plant composition due to changes in owner lifestyle (Wiersum, 2006). ...
... Meanwhile, Cactaceae has the highest number of species in homegardens in San Rafael, Mexico (Blanckaert et al., 2004). Thus, geographical and socio-cultural differences are important factors that influence the composition of homegarden plant diversity (Wiersum, 2006;Huai & Hamilton, 2009). ...
Since homegardens reflect a culture of a particular ethnic group, the study in homegardens provide unique insights into ethnobotany. The Saibatin sub-tribe in Lampung has extensive uses for plants, but an ethnobotanical study of their homegardens are still lacking. This study aimed to describe the structure and composition of the Saibatin community homegarden and to explain the diversity of plants and the usage patterns through an ethnobotany perspective. The study also aimed to elaborate species with social-economic and ecological functions and to describe the overall functions of homegardens. Ethnobotanical data were collected using participant observation methods, which were complemented by questionnaires. We determined the key respondents and common respondents using the purposive sampling and snowball sampling method, while homegarden plant species diversity was identified using vegetation analysis methods. The results showed that 3 size categories of homegardens are present in this area, including narrow, medium, and broad. The homegarden structure consisted of hadap/tangebah (front yard), gelekhan (side yard), and kudan (backyard). Six types of habitus composed the homegarden structure, namely herbaceous, epiphytes, shrubs, trees, succulents, and vines. The homegarden species richness index (DMg) in Way Jambu Village (WJA) (17.34) was higher than Labuhan Mandi Village (LMA) (16.87). Even so, the homegarden plant diversity (H') and evenness (J) in LMA was higher than WJA. There were 16 plant usage categories used by the Saibatin community (WJA 15; LMA14). Foodstuffs were the usage category of homegardens with the highest number of species in both villages. The species ICS value ranges between the two villages were relatively similar. The highest ICS species in WJA was Cocos nucifera while in LMA was Cymbopogon citratus. By studying ethnobotany of Saibatin sub-tribe homegarden we conclude that the three main roles of the homegardens are to provide social-economic impacts, ecological services, and representing the cultural value of Saibatin community identity.
... Both systems consist of house buildings and various components such as forest plants, agriculture, and livestock (Liling et al., 2016;Karaeng et al., 2020;Rombe et al., 2022). Plant diversity in agroforestry systems, including the KAS, is influenced by many factors, including the socio-culture of an ethnic group (Wiersum, 2006;Galhena et al., 2013). The homegarden system is closely related to the life of its owner (Galluzzi et al., 2010). ...
... In the tropics, homegarden agroforestry systems have a rich variety of plants. However, this diversity is under threat from land expansion as a result of population growth and the transformation of plant composition due to changes in the owner's lifestyle (Wiersum, 2006). ...
The Kombong agroforestry system (KAS) has long been practiced and plays an important role in the livelihoods of the Toraja tribe's settlements, in addition to their social, cultural, and environmental sustainability. This research aims to explain the species composition and wood volume, how the utilization of plant species in the KAS has social, cultural, economic, and ecological functions, analyze the plant cultural significance of KAS of the Toraja tribe, the role of KAS for the conservation of Tongkonan Traditional Houses (TTHs) and KAS in preserving the Rambu Tuka' and Rambu Solo’ traditional ceremonies of the Toraja tribe. The research used vegetation survey methods and in-depth interviews with respondents, which were conducted using a set of guidelines for questionnaires. The research results indicate that there are 115 plant species belonging to 49 families. The plant use category is high, with foodstuffs and fruit being the use category with the highest number of species. The index of cultural significance (ICS) of the Toraja tribe varies greatly, from very high categories to those whose use is not yet known. Rice has the highest ICS value, with a score of 130. The KAS and TTHs are closely related and are always found in traditional Toraja settlements. They form a unit that supports each other, and the existence and sustainability of a TTH largely depend on the preservation of the KAS. The KAS has a close connection to both the Rambu Solo' and Rambu Tuka' traditional ceremonies. All plant species needed to build and maintain a TTH and for conducting these two traditional ceremonies are found in the KAS. Thus, the KAS is very important for the Toraja tribe because it not only supports the economic and social aspects of their lives but also functions to protect the environment and traditional culture, including preserving the TTH form and the Rambu Solo' and Rambu Tuka' traditional parties.
... The species of plants cultivated in the home garden were numerous ( Table 2-7). The plant species diversity is similar to that of a tropical home garden or that of other traditional home gardens in many regions in developing countries (Ferdous et al., 2016) and Java Island (Hakim & Nakagoshi, 2007;Putri et al., 2016;Wiersum, 2006). The difference in species selection for traditional home gardens is primarily due to the altitudinal/climatic regime and also to traditional beliefs and day-to-day requirements of the farming people. ...
... The utilization of the home garden of the traditional home garden based on a group of plants is shown in table 8. The home garden's diversity and utilization can be affected by the social-economic status of the household (Wiersum, 2006). ...
Home gardens are traditional agricultural systems, particularly common in the tropics,
characterized by high plant diversity and play an important role for local residents' livelihoods. Home gardens are reservoirs of biological diversity. This study aims to analyze the diversity and utilization of plants in the traditional home garden. The study was conducted in Bangkalan District, Madura Island, East Java Province, Indonesia. Data was collected in three sub-districts based on the different sea-level surfaces from June 2019 to February 2020. The techniques used were plant inventory, participatory observations, and individual interviews. A total of 30 home gardens were observed in this study. Plant diversity was calculated using the Shannon diversity index (H). The results of the Shannon index indicate that there is medium species diversity in the home gardens in the Bangkalan district (the diversity ranged from 0.48 to 1.81). Plants grown for fruit, vegetables, ornamentals, medicine, food crops, and other purposes. Traditional communities utilize their home gardens mostly for subsistence purposes.
... Homegardens (HGs) are traditional agroforestry systems practiced by farmers around the globe since time immemorial. The growing of trees within or near home compounds along with other crops for deriving multiple benefits like subsistence to household consumption dates back to 7000-3000 BCE or even to 13,000-9000 BCE [1]. These gardens hold keys to conserve and preserve plant diversity against all odds of anthropogenic and climate crisis. ...
... HGs across the globe suggest that they are multifunctional which represent a mini gene bank at regional level [1]. Many HGs have been documented for their supplemental role to food and nutritional abundance, nourishment and income generation [12][13][14][15][16][17]. ...
Homegardens (HGs) are dynamic agroforestry systems that ensure food and nutritional security and environmental protection. In northeast India where shifting cultivation (SC) is still prevailing in large scale, HGs offer a viable solution to SC, however, there is limited information on the potential of these systems to improve the landscape, meet the households' daily requirements. Forty two HGs were surveyed to study species diversity, their variation across developmental stages (age), and ability to provide resilience to food shortage and health. The results showed that all HGs irrespective of their age are biodiverse-rich systems showing diversity (H) from 3.765 to 4.245 (tree), 2.803 to 3.65 (shrub), and 3.13 to 3.925 (herb). A higher proportion of species was found occupied height > 6 m at old HG (OHG) while in young HG (YHG) major proportion of species were at low height (0–1 m). Though the species diversity showed weak relationship with HG age, association of diverse species was as per the household requirements. Based on the structure and function six HG groups were recognized; group II showed highest species diversity while group III, V and VI were mainly subsistence oriented. The results showed soil conditions improved with an increase in HG age. All HGs provided a varying degree of nutritional and food security to the households, a most important characteristic for sustaining livelihood under political isolation and economic blockade and land-locked situations. The study concludes that Mizo HGs can be a viable alternative to SC in providing regular income and therefore promotion of HGs can enhance socio-ecological, economic development, and further combats climate change impacts in this region and/or other regions of India having similar eco-regions.
... Homegardens are reputed among the oldest forms of land use activity (next only to shifting cultivation) that has evolved through generations of gradual intensification of cropping in response to increasing human pressure and the corresponding shortage of arable lands. The Javanese homegardens of Indonesia and the Kerala homegardens of India have evolved over centuries of cultural and biological transformations and represent the accrued wisdom and insights of farmers who have interacted with environment, without access to exogenous inputs, capital, or scientific skills (Wiersum, 2006). ...
... They represent a confluence of human ingenuity with ecological ambience, offered by year-round growing seasons and the amenability of the various species to grow under shade in mixed stands. In the most widely studied homegarden systems in Southand Southeast Asia, homegardens are used to produce products with high nutritional va1ue (proteins, vitamins, minerals), medicina1 plants and spices, firewood, and sometimes a1so forage crops and construction wood (Wiersum, 2006). ...
The proposed designation of the Anthropocene suggests a triple challenge of preventing biodiversity loss, mitigating and adapting to climate change, and sustainably providing resources for a growing human population. Anthromes often take the form of multifunctional mosaics of perennials and annuals (e.g., agroforestry systems). Biodiversity-based land management of working lands has been practiced since ancient times and their value has been recognized, updated and promoted across our global biomes over the past forty years. Analogous agroforestry systems are found in common biomes across the globe. Agroforestry incorporates an array of successful strategies, historic and modern, that have relevance for achievement of multiple Sustainable Development Goals (e.g., biodiversity, climate change, poverty alleviation). Four agroforestry biomes are described, both historic and modern, that will play an important role in helping to achieve global Sustainable Development Goals. These include: (1) Mediterranean anthrome (dehesa/savanna with livestock); (2) Highland/lowland/island tropical anthrome (homegardens and multi-strata systems); (3) Temperate zone anthrome (silvopasture, alley cropping—silvoarable); and (4) Arid/semi-arid tropical anthrome (improved fallows, farmer-managed natural regeneration, evergreen agriculture).
... In recent years, several studies on HAF in different parts of the globe have been carried out by some researchers, including, Lundgren and Raintree (1982); Nair and Sreedharon (1986); Maikhuri et al. (2000); Santhakumar (2001); Bhatti and Church (2004); Kumar and Nair (2004); Nair (2006); Peyre et al. (2006); Wiersum (2006); Pandey (2007); Galhena (2012); Neulinger et al. (2013); Basu (2014); Gebre (2016); Tangjang and Arunachalam (2017); Haque et al (2018); Deka and Bhagabati (2018); Prihatini et al. (2018); Vogl-Lukasser and Vogl (2018); Barua, et al (2019); DeHaan, et al (2020) to note a few. Most of these studies delve into various aspects of HAF, including its definition, types, benefits, status, utility, and local knowledge. ...
This study examines the intricate interplay between species diversity and socio-cultural importance (SCI) in the homestead agroforestry (HAF) systems of Sivasagar, a floodplain district nestled in the upper Brahmaputra Valley Agro-climatic region of Assam, India. Over the past decade, the district has witnessed notable ecological, cultural, and economic shifts propelled by modern agricultural practices, market-driven economies, recurrent floods, and industrial and infrastructural activities. Thus, the study endeavors to unravel the main drivers of these changes and their impacts on species diversity and socio-cultural values of the homestead agroforestry, offering insights into the implications for the region's rural ecology and culture. To achieve its aims, the research employs a range of methodologies, including in-depth field observations, household surveys, oral interviews, participatory rural appraisal, rapid rural appraisal, and focus group discussions to evaluate plant species diversity and their Socio-Cultural Importance (SCI) within HAF systems. The findings indicate a decline in indigenous plant species due to the transition from traditional to market-oriented agriculture, significantly affecting the socio-cultural fabric of the communities. This includes the displacement of traditional practices with market-based alternatives, erosion of traditional knowledge, and a threat to the region's ecological and cultural integrity. These findings underscore the need for a balanced approach that honors traditions and ecological heritage while addressing challenges arising from modernization and external influences. Thus, this research serves as a crucial foundation for informed decision-making, providing insights to safeguard the unique ecology and culture of rural areas in the Brahmaputra Valley, with a specific focus on the Sivasagar district in Assam, India. It also directs efforts towards forging sustainable solutions to ensure the future well-being of these rural communities, offering valuable lessons for similar regions grappling with ecological and cultural transformations.
... This finding contributes to a better understanding of the ecological and cultural diversity in rural areas, as well as the impact of policy promotion and improved transportation conditions on homegarden plant diversity. This study revealed that shifts in land use have impacted the utilization of homegarden plants, affirming the substantial role of enhanced land policies and infrastructure in promoting local ecology and culture [45,46]. Further attention and research on this phenomenon can provide strong support for the rural revitalization strategy and the construction of an ecological civilization, promoting sustainable development in rural areas. ...
Background
Homegardens are small-scale land use systems with significant implications for local livelihoods, biodiversity conservation, and sustainable development due to their diverse flora and fauna. Conducting homegarden surveys enables researchers to gain insights into the traditional ecological knowledge of indigenous communities, preserve homegarden biodiversity, and promote sustainable livelihoods. This study has two objectives: first, to collect, record, and organize data on homegarden plants and related traditional knowledge from three communities in the Laershan Plateau, and second, to analyze the species and functional diversity of homegarden plants in the region while exploring the factors that contribute to the heterogeneous distribution of these plants among the communities of three townships.
Methods
This research employed field surveys in the Laershan Miao Autonomous Region in Xiangxi, China, from September 2021 to August 2023. Data were collected through observation and semi-structured interviews. The study utilized descriptive statistics and quantitative analysis, including the Relative Importance Value (RI), Use Value Index (UV), Jaccard Index (JI), and Comprehensive Index of Land Use Degree (La), to examine the diversity of local homegarden plants and related traditional knowledge, as well as community heterogeneity.
Results
The study area exhibited rich biodiversity, with 152 plant species recorded belonging to 62 families and 124 genera. These findings highlight the importance of homegarden plants in maintaining ecological balance and enhancing system resilience against disturbances. Homegarden plants serve multiple functions such as food, ornamental, medicinal, and fodder purposes, with edible and trade plants having the most abundant knowledge. Furthermore, this research revealed that communities with similar forest resource compositions may have similar homegarden plant compositions, demonstrating the connection between cultural exchange among different communities and patterns of plant species distribution.
Conclusions
The Laershan region boasts diverse homegarden plant species crucial for ecological balance and resilience. Their multifunctionality reflects human impact. Plant diversity varies with residents' lifestyles, needs, and cultural exchanges. The close connection between plants and local life is clear. Factors like resource distribution, cultural exchange, and lifestyle influence plant distribution. Further research is needed for conservation and sustainable development. Future research should focus on culturally valuable plant species and traditional knowledge applications.
... Although each garden individually occupies a small area, the total contribution of this type of habitat to the total green areas of the city can be substantial and constitute 16-36% of the total urban area [2,[4][5][6][7]. Species diversity in domestic gardens is often determined by a combination of environmental, cultural and socio-economic factors [8][9][10], and is directly influenced by the owners, who shape them according to their own discretion depending on culture, lifestyle and aesthetic preferences [11,12]. Domestic gardens contribute significantly to the total number of plant taxa in urban environments, and are also a key site for introduction of non-native plants, including the invasive taxa [2,13,14]. ...
Gardens around private houses are complex urban habitats, and generally consist of a mosaic of different microhabitats including hedges, paved surfaces, lawns, flowerbeds, fruit trees, vegetable patches and areas of uncultivated land. Although their individual size is small, domestic gardens significantly contribute to the overall flora of the urban areas. The floristic composition of domestic gardens is influenced by both natural processes and by the activities of the owners, who shape them according to their own preferences, depending on culture and lifestyle. Domestic gardens have not been represented in ecological studies until recently, primarily due to lack of access and were deliberately omitted, but it has been showed that they represent the greatest source of potentially invasive alien plants. This study, conducted in the area of 32 km2, as a part of a wider study of the urban flora of the city of Sarajevo, presents the first detailed analysis of the spontaneous flora in the domestic gardens and provides new knowledge on the flora of this, often overlooked, habitat.
... Agricultural farming systems and livelihoods in Indonesia are characterized by their mostly small-scale size, subjectivity to erosion, land conflict, low income, and credit dependence (Adiningsih and Karama 1992;Mohri et al. 2013;Andriyani et al. 2017;Mariyono 2019). Spatial variation of bio-physical systems and diversity in cultural and social capitals exist and suggest the diversity in farming typology (Wiersum 2006). ...
The agreement between meteorological data and societal perception is essential in supporting a robust policy making and its implementation. In humid tropic watersheds like Brantas, such consensus is important for water resources management and policies. This study exemplifies an effort to understand the long-term rainfall characteristics within the watershed and to build a common link among the differing data sources: CHIRPS rainfall satellite data, rain gauge data, and farmers perceptions. Six rainfall characteristics were derived using statistical measures from the scientific data and then were translated to a series of structured questionnaires given to small-scale farmers. A consensus matrix was built to examine the level of agreement among three data sources, supporting the spatial pattern of the meteorological data and farmers perception. Two rainfall attributes were classified with high agreement, four with moderate and one with low agreement. The agreements and discrepancies of rainfall characteristics were found in the study area. The discrepancies originated from the accuracy in translating scientific measurements to practical meanings for farmers, complexity of the farming system, the nature of phenomena in questions, and farmers’ ability to record long-term climatic events. This study shows an implication that a combined approach to link scientific data and societal data is needed to support powerful climate policy making.
... Homegardens are dynamic and resilient micro-farming systems that respond effectively to rural transformation and livelihood diversification driven socio-economic changes. However, now they are forced to transform into commercially oriented systems [49]. Unfortunately, from the past decades, driven by socio-economic changes in terms of urbanization, better access and communication, tourism, loss of knowledge and traditional crops, health issues of local public, crop pests and diseases, land shortage, drought and unemployment, the communities and especially the younger generation shy away from their traditional knowledge. ...
Homegardens with modified micro-environment mimick natural forests within the homestead boundary. They are associated with prestige and pride of its owner and provide multiple goods and ecosystem services. These gardens are the most ecologically complex but sustainable farming systems to support diverse plants, regulate water, soil, sunlight, temperature, humidity and nutrient cycling and as well buffer micro-climate and improve livelihood of their owner. To address the universal problem of reversing plant diversity in agricultural landscapes, requirement of multiple innovative ways such as homegardens provide alternate yet promoising paradigms of geography, structure, functionality, society and culture. Natural resources managed in homegardens should focus upon improving surroundings of human life and for the maintenance of their ecosystem. Intrinsic to the nature of homegardens are the intimate relationships that exist between human and agroecological components like their design, management, plant species selection, floristic composition, species diversity, distribution and ecosystem functions. Homegardens are now acknowledged for their efficient and viable carbon offset capability. There is now increasing efforts to formulate climate change mitigation strategies to exploit the carbon sequestration potential of homegardens that involve the small land owner as a producer. Unfortunately, the future of traditional homegardens; the genetic reservoir and the traditional knowledge they contain is threatened and depleting with its gradual replacement by highly productive monoculture system that sacrifices sustainability significantly. Thus, to fully understand how homegardens function, and the benefits they offer to their users, it is necessary to integrate and analyze the biophysical and socio-economic aspects of these systems. The present chapter discusses the dynamics of homegarden structure, composition, floristic diversity and the function in relation to its status as a bio-cultural entity.KeywordsHomegardenEcosystem serviceConservationLivelihoodCarbon sequestration
... De acuerdo con Rajagopal et al. (2021), la diferencia en la diversidad entre HF rurales y urbanos también puede ser entendida desde una perspectiva área-especie, ya que los HF rurales albergan más formas de crecimiento (árboles, arbustos y hierbas) pero menor densidad a diferencia de los HF urbanos, los cuales tienden a tener mayor cantidad de plantas herbáceas debido a una menor superficie, lo que impacta directamente en la diversidad esperada. Por ello, la diversidad es dinámica y está relacionada con la densidad y el tamaño del HF, aunque también intervienen los factores agroecológicos de cada región, la influencia del mercado y características culturales de la población (Wiersum, 2006;Kehlenbeck et al., 2007;Pulido et al., 2008). Futuros estudios para comprender los factores socioeconómicos y culturales asociados a la riqueza, estructura y diversidad de los HF en la región de estudio son necesarios, lo que permitirá profundizar en los mecanismos de incidencia del humano en su entorno biocultural inmediato, y abonar información sobre las tendencias de estas métricas en HF rurales del país. ...
Homegardens (HF) are traditional agroforestry systems that favor interconnection with the natural vegetation surrounding the home and provide multiple benefits to people. This study valuated ecological attributes as richness, structure and floristic diversity in HF of the southeast in Morelos state and analyzed the relationship between management practices in these spaces with the metrics previously described from a biocultural perspective. Interviews (N=60) and sampling were carried out in 60 HF in the company of the owner, with the purpose of knowing the forms of use and management of biocultural resources, species composition and local names. Furthermore, a structural characterization was performed in each HF using the Value Index of Relative Importance (IVIR) and Forest Value Relative Index (IVFR), whereas α-diversity indices were estimated. The HF in the study area are mainly managed by women. The species present in these areas are used for 11 different categories of use, including ornamental (61.3%), food (17.7%) and medicinal (16.5%). Nine different management practices associated with the use of the species, the shape and surface of the land and the location of the land were directly associated with the spatial and structural configuration of the HF. The richness present in the studied HF was 329 species, 47% of which were native and from the surrounding tropical deciduous forest. The Fabaceae family was the most outstanding in terms of the number of species. Both the IVIR and IVFR point out that Spondias purpurea, Leucaena leucocephala and Carica papaya are the species that dominate structurally, due to intensive management for their use as food. The diversity registered in these rural HF is considerably high (H'= 3.08), so it is suggested that these socially constructed systems function as reservoirs of agrobiodiversity in the southern region of the state, and that in order to safeguard the biocultural legacy they harbor, efforts are required to recognize the socioeconomic and cultural factors that cause changes in their management.
... It has been observed that, in the process of urbanization, exotic plants are widely introduced [35]. The lowest taxonomic diversity in more rural areas in this study could also be due to the massive cultivation of few plant species for generation of income as it is known that, lower diversity and simplification in many home gardens result from intensive crop production for generating income [36,11,37]. ...
Home gardens are subsistent agricultural production systems consisting of diverse crop plants which are easily accessible and adjacent to homesteads. They sustainably contribute to livelihoods in developing countries. Regarding the modernization in tropical Africa, there are changes in plant composition of urbanizing areas like Tubah Sub-Division, North West Region, Cameroon while the useful plant diversity in home gardens are poorly or not documented. This study aims to assess the diversity of useful plant species and identify key factors that influence diversity. 120 selected home gardens from Tubah Sub-Division were surveyed using two complementary field sampling approaches: interaction with selected households head through the use of structured questionnaires on garden plants and direct field observation. To assess plant abundance, the entire home garden was considered as a sample plot for tree, shrub, climber and epiphytic plant species while for herbaceous species, five quadrats of 1 m2 were used to count each species. A total of 133 useful plant species belonging to 108 genera and 47 families were recorded, with the number of species varying among the villages. The dominating families were Solanaceae, Fabaceae and Asteraceae. Age of household head and age of home garden were the key factors which significantly influenced the plant diversity. As home gardens in Tubah Sub-Division consist of diverse garden plants which are of great importance, we suggest that home gardening should be promoted, through education and extension services. This study should also be extended to other parts of the North West Region.
... However, recent trends in homegardening are indicating that their structure and composition are changing, which has been due to shifts in the farming method, which is now more focused on the cultivation of commercial plants as a secondary source of income (Wiersum 2006;Peyre et al. 2006). This transformation also causes the diversity and composition of plants species to decrease when these tree species are replaced with high-value crops. ...
The high diversity of plant species in homegardens contributes to the provision of a range of goods and services, as well as considerably benefiting the environment and boosting ecological sustainability. Despite their importance, homegardens in Malaysia have not been systematically studied. This paper explores the diversity of useful plant species in Malaysian homegardens, as well as their vertical structure. The effect of the size of homegardens and socioeconomic variables on the diversity of plants species were also investigated by using Self Organizing Map, a type of machine learning method. In total, 207 species of useful plants distributed among 169 genera and 78 families were recorded. At the species level, Musa paradisiaca L. had the highest frequency, while Euphorbiaceae had the highest at the family level. The vertical structure of homegardens was divided into five distinct layers: herbaceous layer, shrub layer, understory layer, canopy layer and emergent layer. Plant diversity is influenced by the size of homegardens and socioeconomic variables. As the size of the homegardens increased, as such increased the diversity of plant species. Lower-income households and worked in agriculture sectors that rely on homegrown food and medicinal plants are increasing the diversity of plant species in homegardens, highlighting the importance of these agroecosystems as a food security approach.
... Extensive review of the literature on homegardens from developing countries in Asia, Africa, and Latin America strongly support the positive contribution of homegardens in sustainable and efficient agricultural production systems that benefit local and rural communities (Kumar and Nair 2006;Michon et al. 2007). However, recent trends in homegarden cultivation indicate that their structure and composition are changing, which has been due to shifts in the farming method, which is now more focused on the cultivation of commercial plants as a secondary source of income (Wiersum 2006). This transformation also causes the diversity and composition of trees and shrubs to decrease when these tree species are replaced with high value crops (Jensen 1993). ...
The high diversity of trees and shrubs species in homegardens contributes to the provision of a variety of food products and medicinal plants, as well as greatly benefits the environment, improving the socioeconomic status of local communities and ecological sustainability. The purpose of this study is to characterize the diversity and composition of trees and shrubs in homegardens of Kampung Masjid Ijok, Perak, Malaysia, and to investigate the physical and socioeconomic factors that influence the diversity and composition of trees and shrubs in the systems. A total of 40 homegardens were surveyed. In total, 149 species of trees and shrubs were recorded. The mean number of tree and shrub species per homegarden was 40. The average number of trees and shrubs among homegardens ranged from 46 to 121. According to the size, homegardens were categorized into small, medium-sized and large and each category differed not only in the composition of trees and shrubs but also in the type of utilization. Physical and socioeconomic factors influence the composition and diversity of trees and shrubs. The major physical factor was the size of homegardens and the most important socioeconomic factor was the income status of the homegardens owner. The diversity and composition of trees and shrubs species increased as the size of the homegardens increased. Lower-income families are more reliant on homegrown food and medicinal plants, boosting the diversity and richness of tree and shrub species in these agroecosystems, and this relationship underscores the relevance of these agroecosystems as a food security strategy.
... HGs in both rural and urban areas are predominantly small-scale subsistence agricultural systems. Home gardening has been hypothesized to be the oldest form of agriculture in Southeast Asia [9]. HGs are diversified agroecosystems that contribute to the conservation of useful plant species [10]. ...
The ethnic Madurese are among the top five most populous ethnic groups in Indonesia. Their traditional settlements have a special design called Taneyan Lanjang (TL). TL settlements consist of several elements, which are arranged in a specific pattern that is affected by local and Islamic culture. The gardening space of a TL settlement-here referred to as the shared home garden (SHG)-is shared by several family households. The ethnic Madurese apply traditional knowledge to manage their home gardens. This study investigated the features of TLs and SHGs, mostly in relation to cultural matters, the utilization of plants, management based on local knowledge, and their contribution to rural livelihoods. The study area consisted of the four regencies of Madura Island, Indonesia. A total of 200 TL settlements were observed, and 4 key informants and 400 respondents who were engaged in TL were questioned through in-depth interviews. The plant species cultivated in the SHGs were recorded and identified according to the database of The Plant List. In total, 108 plant species within 40 plant families were recorded. Fabaceae had the highest number of species, with 10 species (9.26%), most of which are used as food (65.7%). We identified and characterized the most important services and functions provided by SHGs to rural livelihoods that directly benefit rural communities.
... Research has described the homegarden as traditional farming that is ecologically, socially, and economically sustainable [16]. The primary ecological processes that occur are a competition between plants, plants' consumption by humans, livestock, and pets, and predation of pests by their natural enemies. ...
Farming is nowadays intensively developed in urban areas. Home-garden has excellent potential in supporting household food sufficiency and providing aesthetic value for the household economy. This study's objectives are: (1) to estimate home-garden farming's contribution to household income and (2) to determine the Sustainability of home-garden farming in Yogyakarta City. The research was carried out in the city center and fringe area covering seven districts of Yogyakarta City. The sample was 113 households that utilized their home-garden for farming as the members of farmer groups. Data were analyzed using a simple statistical calculation to determine the contribution of home-garden farming income. Farming sustainability data were categorized into ecological, economic, and social dimensions using a Likert scale. The results of the study showed that the contribution of home-garden farming to household income was 0.81%. This value is relatively small because the land is very narrow. Also, the primary purpose is not for sale. Home-garden farming, both in the city centre and in the suburbs, has a high level of Sustainability, which is indicated by the economic dimension (79.11%), the ecological dimension (78.71%), and the social dimension (84.12%).
... Nilai keberlanjutan ini dapat dilihat dimana pekarangan dapat memenuhi prinsip-prinsip keberlanjutan baik secara ekologi maupun sosial. Meskipun memiliki nilai keberlanjutan, fungsi dan komposisi suatu pekarangan sangat tergantung pada kondisi sosial ekonomi serta strategi mata pencaharian rumah tangga tani pemiliknya (Engels, 2002;Wiersum, 2006). Sementara itu, Kurnianingsih (2013) menyatakan bahwa secara sederhana pekarangan merupakan lahan terbuka yang berada di sekitar rumah tinggal. ...
p align="justify"> Corona Virus Disease 19 (COVID-19) is a disease caused by the SARS-CoV-2 virus that can be transmitted between humans through coughing or sneezing. The application of health protocols and increased immunity is an effort to prevent COVID-19 infection. Intensification of home garden with immune-boosting medical plants have several benefits, that are the fulfillment of household needs of immune-boosting medical plants, overcome the soaring price of immune-boosting medical plants and as physical activity and community ecotherapy to increase immunity. Community service with theme intensification of home garden with immune-boosting medical plants and as ecotherapy was carried out in Mojolaban Sub-district, Sukoharjo. The community service aimed to improve the knowledge and skills of the community related to the intensification of home garden medical plants that can be used as ecotherapy. This activity was conducted by extension and training methods to representatives of two Farmer Women’s Groups, namely KWT Sri Rejeki and KWT Mekar Sari. Participants of this community activity look enthusiastic to follow each activity. The team of community service activity in Mojolaban Sub-district also handed over tools and materials in form of planting media, fertilizers, medical plants seed (turmeric, ginger, temulawak and lemongrass) to KWT Sri Rejeki and KWT Mekar Sari for starting the intensification of home garden with immune-boosting medical plants. This community service increases the knowledge of the community in Mojolaban Sub-district about the intensification of home gardens with immune-boosting medical plants, the community is also enthusiastic to conduct home garden intensification with immune-boosting medical plants after knowing of benefits that will be obtained . </p
... It is assumed to be predominantly a rural phenomenon, as urban spaces for agriculture in Cambodia are dwindling, suggesting that fringe spaces for wild gardening may also be reduced or limited in number and acreage (Underhill, 2013). Wild gardening most commonly occurs in and around home gardens in rural areas, and it is arguably one of the longest agricultural traditions practiced in the region (Wiersum, 2006). It also occurs in multiple 'fringe' areas, such as those along the road, at the edge of the forest, or surrounding rice paddies. ...
Within the last decade, Sustainable Intensification (SI) has emerged as a strategy to respond to future food security challenges. It incorporates increased food production without the cultivation of more land while incurring no net environmental cost. Frameworks attempting to measure SI often focus heavily on production indicators while overlooking other important indicators, such as impacts on economic, social, or human conditions. In this study, we evaluate the purposeful assemblage and management of neglected and underutilized species (NUS) in fringe areas around rural homesteads as a potential SI strategy. We use a recent SI assessment framework developed by the Feed the Future Innovation Lab for Collaborative Research on Sustainable Intensification (SIIL) that incorporates five measurable domains (productivity, economic, environmental, human condition, and social). We present findings from a qualitative case study in northwest Cambodia to assess local conceptualization of wild gardening, current uses of NUS, perceived benefits and challenges to their use and management, and the potential of wild gardening as a SI strategy. The qualitative methods employed 65 key informant interviews and four focus group discussions with both men and women participants. Our results indicate that wild gardening is an important component of rural livelihoods in northeast Cambodia. However, a general lack of knowledge of strategic benefits, such as nutrition potential, inhibits its use for maximum benefits. Wild gardening addresses multiple SI domains simultaneously and demonstrates the potential to be a promising SI strategy for improving rural livelihoods in Cambodia.
... Selain itu, pekarangan juga harus direkomendasikan sebagai salah satu strategi untuk mengatas malnutrisi dan defisiensi nutrisi mikro, khususnya bagi masyarakat di area marjinal. Beberapa studi juga menemukan bahwa pekarangan secara signifikan meningkatkan konsumsi rumah tangga (Niñez 1985, Soemarwoto 1987, Marsh 1998, Mitchell and Hanstad 2004, Abdoellah et al. 2006, Wiersum 2006). ...
A robust management for Indonesian typical home garden or usually called as “pekarangan” is needed to resolve environmental problems in rural landscape, particularly in developing countries. A well planned and managed landscape practices may suppress social economical and ecological development in rural marginal society. Therefore by revitalizing pekarangan systems, marginal communities would have the possibility to advance their asset of landscape services through plant biodiversity (H’) and carbon stock (C) inside pekarangan. The aim of this research is to develop basic landscape service of plant biodiversity and carbon stock, to analyze the correlation between both of them, and to arrange recommendation for revitalizing pekarangan. The results show that pekarangan has diverse plant biodiversity (0.77-3.57) and diverse carbon stock (0.13-136.20 Mg/ha. However plant diversity in mid to high scale (H’ > 1.00) reach 98.95% and high carbon stock (C > 10.00 Mg/ha) reach 45.83%. And there is positive correlation among both of them (Y=0.0099X + 2.0299). Those landscape services provided by pekarangan account to mimic forestry landscape.
... This research identified that closer interactions with urban areas tend to increase the adoption of ornamental plants but also favour overall plant diversity levels in the most urbanised communities. Wiersum (2006) arrives at similar conclusions on the relationship between ornamental plants and off-farm jobs in a review of studies on Indonesian home gardens; he finds that, when alternative income opportunities emerged, households tended to increase the production of ornamental plants in their home gardens. However, this pattern is likely to reduce the resilience of the household in case of job loss as well as undermine the role of the home garden as a biocultural repository. ...
Home gardens are recognised in the literature for their contribution to food security, yet the process by which agrobiodiversity and household characteristics mediate this relationship is less well understood. This paper contributes to fill this research gap by drawing on a multi-site case study in the Yucatán region in Mexico. By applying regression analysis, the significance of the association between home garden diversity and food security is confirmed. Plant diversity is found to have a positive association with food consumption scores and the frequency of vegetable intakes. The number of animals used for food purposes is also found to have positive and significant associations with food consumption scores and frequency of meat intakes. However, the dimension and the significance of these positive associations were found to vary among communities and quantiles of the distribution of food security measures. In the households studied, younger individuals and better-educated people, males and Spanish speakers were more likely to engage in jobs in urban areas. Engagement in urban jobs was found to involve complementarities with the overall plant diversity of home gardens, but also trade-offs with the diversity of vegetables and other herbs used for food purposes and with the abundance of animals raised for food purposes.
Supplementary information:
The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s12571-021-01148-w.
... These results suggest that Ethiopian home gardens can accelerate SOC sequestration. Unfortunately, such potentials are not well documented, and recently people are increasingly converting home gardens to mono-cropping systems in Ethiopia (Abebe et al. 2010(Abebe et al. , 2013Gebrehiwot 2013) and other regions (Nair 2006;Peyre et al. 2006;Wiersum 2006;Scales and Marsden 2008). The conversion can lead to loss of stored SOC and N due to alteration of C and N inputs and increased decomposition of SOC because of increased surface soil oxygen associated with tillage (e.g., Girmay et al. 2008;Don et al. 2011;Kim and Kirschbaum 2015). ...
The main objective of this study was to determine how the conversions of home gardens to mono-crop fields affect soil organic carbon (SOC) and total nitrogen (TN) stocks. The study compared SOC and soil TN stocks in 7 paired sites of home gardens and converted mono-crop fields (khat and sugar cane; cultivated for 1–20 years after conversion) in Wondo Genet, Southern Ethiopia. Except two recently converted mono-crop fields (1 and 4 years after conversion), most of converted mono-crop fields had significantly lower contents of SOC (18.3–47.1 %) and soil TN (14.9–45 %) compared to home gardens. Converted mono-crop fields over 10–20 years old showed significantly lower SOC stocks (18.2–30.2 %) and soil TN stocks (16.7–28.7 %) compared to home gardens. There was no significant relationship between the periods after conversion and the rate of decrease of SOC and TN stocks in the mono-crop fields. Study results show that conversion of home gardens to mono-crop fields decreases SOC and TN stocks. Further studies are needed to identify the major mechanisms causing the decrease and quantify the change of SOC and TN in different environment and climate conditions.
Graphical Abstract
... Herbaceous plants, such as vegetables, starchy crops, and spice plants, are seasonal plants that are highly affected by climatic parameters, such as rainfall and temperature, and they are easily accessed through the market for subsistence consumption. On the other hand, when considering economic aspects, ornamental species are more attractive for households than vegetables due to the market economy in urbanized areas in particular [14,19,34,[45][46][47][48]. ...
Home garden is a traditional agroforestry system, which is an ecologically and socio-economically sustainable land use system in West Java, Indonesia. It plays a fundamental role in providing subsistence food and income to local people through a multi-strata structure. Despite the importance of the home garden, which is strongly linked with quality of living, there is still a lack of quantitative data and information. Therefore, we quantified the economic and ecological characteristics of home gardens in the present study to evaluate their diverse roles. In addition, general strategies that are applicable to home gardens in West Java were developed for sustainable management. The results of this study indicated that: (1) large landholding size showed a significantly higher Net Present Value (NPV) than small landholding size when the home gardens were dominated by fruit tree species, (2) species richness, species diversity, and carbon stock did not differ significantly among the different types and sizes of home gardens in West Java, and (3) multi-layered and diverse species composition is considerable for sustainable management of home gardens in terms of income generation and against urbanization and commercialization in West Java, Indonesia. Further studies should be considered for developing a standardized and generalized model that is able to evaluate and quantify the various ecosystem values that are generally acceptable and applicable in rural areas.
... edible fruits, nuts, grain, rhizomes and tubers, leaves, flowers, fodder, mushrooms, medicinal plants and other non-timber forest products including fuels, livestock products, etc.), the indirect mechanisms that promote enhanced and/or sustained production (soil fertility improvement, soil and water conservation, hydrological benefits, microclimatic modification, etc.) are fundamental to both types. Most agroforestry systems are also complementary to other crop production enterprises, as they provide green manure, fodder and fuel (Wiersum 2006). This complementary and sustainable use of environmental resources differentiates food production through agroforestry from that through intensive arable cropping and makes agroforestry particularly attractive. ...
Worldwide, agroforestry has been shown to provide farmers and communities with a range of direct services such as food, livestock feed, wood and medicine as well as indirect ecosystem services such as pollination, pest and weed control, and soil formation and enrichment. These multiple benefits suggest that woody perennials, such as trees and shrubs, could contribute to a regenerative agricultural landscape that lessens poverty and malnutrition in marginalized communities. In this chapter we review beneficial insects and their ecological significance in human-modified landscapes. Insects should not be written-off as insect pest species by the education, agricultural or policy sectors. Rather, the ecosystem services provided by beneficial insects and their associated habitat should be left intact in agricultural and urban settings. In the case of insects that are both beneficial and harmful to food production, their promotion as food to areas where insect cuisine is unknown in conjunction with sustainable farming methods should be considered.
... Mohri et al. (2018) [9] reports that Kandyan homegardens have become substantially fragmented over the past two decades. Furthermore, commercialization, wildlife crop raiding and damage, and water scarcity have driven homegarden simplification and abandonment [8,10]. This has led to at least 27 plant species becoming lost or threatened in recent times [21]. ...
Kandyan homegardens are traditional agroforestry systems that exist to support rural livelihoods in Kandy District, Sri Lanka. These agro-ecosystems have been sustained over generations of socio-ecological change and are recognized today for their biodiversity conservation and ecosystem services. The main drivers of adaption and the sustainability of homegardens are the local farmers who manage them on a daily basis. However, despite being key stakeholders, local communities have seldom been included in research, especially through participatory approaches. This study utilized a participatory and visual method called photovoice to reveal the local perspectives and experiences of socio-ecological change as viewed by 24 Kandyan homegardeners. The results highlight visual documentation and narrative that publicly displayed farmers’ perspectives of their current homegardening situation and the major challenges they face. The priorities for future conservation of homegardens include addressing wildlife conflict and crop damage, the lack of land to grow, and a decline in available labor and interest in agriculture, especially among younger household members. Our results indicate that the photovoice process allowed for rich, varied, and in-depth stories of the human-ecological relationship in homegardens to emerge. Consideration of these relationships and the knowledge of local communities are necessary for understanding socio-ecological change in homegardens, and key to sustainable development. Photovoice, we conclude, is a robust method for research in agroforestry systems that can effectively engage local farmers and produce participant-driven data that are potentially well suited to complement other methods for a more holistic approach to understanding homegardens.
... Duku). Biasanya, masyarakat lokal sering membuang sisa biji di halaman belakang lalu seiring berjalannya waktu biji tersebut tumbuh dan dipelihara (Blanckaert, et al., 2004;Wiersum, 2006 ...
The diversity of homegardens plants in the tropics region is very high. Therefore, homegarden can be a conservation site for local species. In addition, homegarden plays an important role in providing food resources for rural communities, especially for farmers. The community at Tanjungan Village is one of the communities in Lampung that almost entirely work as farmers. Ethnobotanical studies of the community are still rarely carried out, therefore this research was conducted. The purpose of this study is to explain the composition of homegarden plants in Tanjungan Village. Secondly to explain the diversity of homegarden plant species used as daily food. The third to describe a source of homegarden plants acquisition at Tanjungan Village. Research data were collected using participant observation interview methods and questionnaires, then the data were analyzed using qualitative approach. The results showed that as many as 155 species, 15 cultivars, and 5 variants belonging to 58 families compiled the diversity of homegarden plants at Tanjungan Village. Recorded as many as 13 use categories of homegarden plants which food is the highest category of species (66 species and 11 cultivars 34 families). Fabaceae is the family with the highest number of food species (6 sp.). The most commonly found food plants are gedang (Carica papaya) with the frequency of discovery 27 times. The source of the acquisition of the seeds of the garden plants in Pekon Tanjungan, namely the collection from neighbors, seeds from the garden, spontaneous growing seeds, sellers of plant seeds, and the distribution of seedlings from the local agricultural service.
Abstrak
Keanekaragaman tanaman pekarangan di wilayah tropis sangat tinggi sehingga pekarangan dapat menjadi situs konservasi bagi spesies lokal. Selain itu, pekarangan memainkan peran penting dalam menyediakan sumber makanan untuk masyarakat pedesaan, terutama bagi para petani. Masyarakat Pekon Tanjungan, di Kabupaten Tanggamus, Lampung hampir seluruhnya bekerja sebagai petani. Sejauh ini, studi etnobotani pada pekarangan masyarakat tersebut masih jarang ditemukan. Oleh karena itu dilakukan penelitian ini dengan tujuan, pertama menginventarisasi spesies dan komposisi tanaman pekarangan di Pekon Tanjungan. Kedua, menganalisis spesies tanaman pekarangan yang digunakan sebagai bahan pangan. Ketiga, mengetahui sumber perolehan tanaman pekarangan di Pekon Tanjungan. Data penelitian dikumpulkan dengan menggunakan metode wawancara observasi partisipan dan kuesioner, kemudian data dianalisis menggunakan pendekatan kualitatif. Hasil penelitian menunjukkan bahwa 155 spesies, 15 kultivar, dan 5 varian yang tergolong dalam 58 famili tumbuhan menyusun keanekaragaman tanaman pekarangan di Desa Tanjungan. Tercatat sebanyak 13 kategori penggunaan tanaman pekarangan. Bahan pangan merupakan kategori guna dengan jumlah spesies tertinggi (66 spesies dan 11 kultivar 34 famili). Sebagian besar spesies tersebut berasal dari suku Fabaceae yakni sebanyak 6 spesies. Tanaman pangan yang paling banyak ditemukan adalah gedang (Carica papaya) dengan frekuensi penemuan 27 kali. Sumber perolehan bibit tanaman pekaraga di Pekon Tanjungan, yaitu tetangga, kebun, benih tumbuh spontan, penjual bibit tanaman, dan dinas pertanian setempat.
Kata Kunci: etnobotani pekarangan, sumber bahan pangan, komposisi tanaman pekarangan, pekon tanjungan
... Landscape designs were not static but continued to evolve through the transmission of social ecological knowledge from ancestors (Gómez-Baggethun et al., 2013), with ongoing socioeconomic transformations (Wiersum, 2006), in response to water availability, market demand and household needs (Peyre et al., 2006). Consequently, in relatively dry seasons, farmers diversified paddy land use or cultivated alternate crops in paddy fields, cash crop plots and chenas as found in this and other Sri Lankan studies (Dharmasiri, 2008;Wickramasinghe, 2013). ...
Globally farmers are challenged by increasing climate variability and frequency of extreme events. However, traditional farming enterprises demonstrate resilience. To understand the underlying reasons, traditional farming enterprises in Sri Lanka were explored. Eighty-five farming enterprises were sampled across nine locations of the Intermediate agroecological zone using mixed methods. Farming enterprises incorporate On- and Off-farm livelihood components (Graphical abstract). On-farm refers to landholdings with land uses including tree-dominant forest gardens (FGs), paddy, cash crops, swidden plots (chenas), plantations and livestock. Off-farm includes employment, trading and grants. We investigated how farming enterprises remained resilient, and which land use had the greatest adaptive capacity and best fulfilled household needs? Farming enterprises were assessed with respect to water availability, farmers' perspectives of climate variability, their socioeconomic characteristics, and land uses in landholdings. Land uses were characterised and compared by floristic diversity, crop: utility benefits, food functions, and those consumed and sold. Results revealed that most respondents were women, had primary school education and engaged full-time in farming. Cultivation was mainly rainfed. Farmers' perceptions of climate variability were supported by meteorological data showing that interannual and seasonal rainfall variability prevailed in the reference and preceding years. Farmers withstood these challenges owing to FGs, which were the oldest and dominant land use of all land uses, with larger area, highest plant and crop species richness, and crop diversity. Greater numbers of primary and secondary FG crops and products provided multiple household benefits. High floristic diversity, tree-dominance and multifunctionality gave FGs strong adaptive capacity. Nevertheless, farmers simultaneously adopted multiple land uses with diverse landscape designs and Off-farm livelihood strategies because this offered greater opportunities, buffered risk and increased resilience in farming enterprises. A clear implication of this study is that policymakers should engage with farmers when planning for a resilient agriculture in a variable climate scenario.
... The decline in the wild stock of important medicinal plant species also affects the market supply of indigenous medicinal plant materials (Anon, 2003). Since the management practices of these plants in the wild are not well regulated, the intensive harvesting of these species for their medicinal use has in many places resulted in overexploitation and a serious threat to biodiversity (Wiersum, 2006). The determination of important quality parameters would help motivate for commercial production, especially if these parameters are comparable to those of commercialized teas. ...
Purpose
The present study was carried out to determine (1) essential minerals, total polyphenols, total flavonoids, moisture and ash of four selected South African herbal teas and (2) the effect of blending bush tea with other known commercial herbal teas.
Design/methodology/approach
The method used to determine moisture and ash contents followed that of the Association of Official Analytical Chemists (AOAC). Nine minerals were analyzed using inductively coupled plasma optical emission spectrometry (ICP-OES). The total phenolic and flavonoid contents were determined by Folin–Ciocalteu assay and aluminum chloride colorimetric assay, respectively.
Findings
The results of the study demonstrated that bush tea had a high ash content of 8.01% and special tea (9.23%), while honeybush (1.96%) and rooibos tea (2.17%) exhibited a low ash percentage. The mineral content was higher in bush tea and special tea than in rooibos tea and honeybush tea except for sodium, which was higher in rooibos tea. The blending of bush tea with special tea improved its potassium content from 22,937.00 mg/kg to 23,379.20 mg/kg. Blending bush tea with rooibos tea at a ratio of 25:75 increased the flavonoid content to 12.21 µg/mL.
Research limitations/implications
The results of the nutrients composition cannot be generalized as it is influenced by other factors such as soil type and seasons.
Social implications
Increasing the commercialization of indigenous teas.
Originality/value
The results of the study suggest that bush tea and special tea are nutritionally comparable with South African commercial herbal teas. Thus, the consideration for commercialization of these teas is crucial.
ARTIGOS Este é um artigo de acesso aberto distribuído sob os termos da Licença Creative Commons BY-NC-SA 4.0, que permite uso, distribuição e reprodução para fins não comerciais, com a citação dos autores e da fonte original e sob a mesma licença. Resumo Os quintais agroflorestais são um tipo de Sistema Agroflorestal (SAF) e, como tal, possuem a capacidade de conjugar a produção animal e vegetal para diversos fins, aliada à manutenção e conservação de uma rica biodiversidade. A presente pesquisa, contou com visitas de campo a quatro quintais agroflorestais mantidos por assentados do Assentamento Terra Prometida-Duque de Caxias-RJ, além da análise de ortofotos e imagens de satélite, uso de aplicações tecnológicas para reconhecimento florístico, e de bibliografia correlata. A pesquisa objetivou reconhecer o contexto paisagístico dos quintais, além de identificar a composição florística e animal, buscando compreender o perfil de seus responsáveis e seus usos atribuídos às plantas de seus quintais. Como resultados foram identificadas 77 diferentes famílias botânicas, sendo compostas por 1360 indivíduos vegetais. Os quatro quintais analisados eram majoritariamente manejados por mulheres com média de 51 anos. O índice de diversidade de Shannon-Wiener (H') dos quintais variou entre 2,59 e 4,72, tendo 3,29 como média. Os animais mais comuns foram os cachorros e as galinhas, encontrados em todos os quintais. Concluiu-se que os quintais estudados são estruturas paisagísticas extremamente ricas em biodiversidade, que formam mosaicos de unidades produtivas do Assentamento, gerando inúmeros serviços ecossistêmicos e a conservação da natureza. Palavras-chave: Biogeografia, Sistemas Agroflorestais, levantamento florístico. Abstract Homegardens are a type of Agroforestry System and, as such, have the capacity to combine animal and plant production for different purposes, combined with the maintenance and conservation of rich biodiversity. This research included field visits to four agroforestry homegardens maintained by settlers from the Terra Prometida Settlement-Duque de Caxias-RJ, in addition to the analysis of orthophotos and satellite images, the use of technological applications for floristic recognition, and related bibliography. The research aimed to recognize the landscape context of the homegardens, in addition to identifying the floristic and animal composition, seeking to understand the profile of those responsible and their uses attributed to the plants in their homegardens. As a result, 77 different botanical families were identified, consisting of 1360 plant individuals. The four backyards analyzed were mostly managed by women with an average of 51 years old. The Shannon-Wiener diversity index (H') of the homegardens varied between 2.59 and 4.72, with 3.29 as an average. The most common animals were dogs and chickens, found in every backyard. It was concluded that the backyards studied are landscape structures extremely rich in biodiversity, which form mosaics of productive units in the Settlement, generating countless ecosystem services and nature conservation.
This study evaluates the significance of homestead agroforestry (HAF) systems for rural livelihoods in Sivasagar
District of Assam, India, using Livelihood Significance Index (LSI). The research integrates both quantitative and
qualitative methods to offer a comprehensive analysis of how HAF systems contribute to rural livelihoods. The
study reveals that the importance of various HAF plant species has undergone significant shifts over the past
decade due to socio-economic changes, such as rising household expenses, market-oriented economic transitions,
and urbanization. Among these species, Bambusa arundinacea has the highest livelihood significance, with an
average LSI of 2.79, although this has decreased by 0.71 % from 2012 to 2022. Conversely, Tectona grandis,
despite its low livelihood significance, has experienced a decadal increase in LSI of 20.5 %. This indicates that,
while such species currently play a lesser role in community livelihoods, their importance is gradually increasing
due to their economic benefits. The study also identifies several challenges, including the loss of traditional
knowledge, the vulnerability of agroforestry systems to environmental changes, and difficulties in maintaining
biodiversity amidst market pressures. To address these issues, the study advocates for sustainable agroforestry
practices in the district that integrate both traditional and economically valuable species while improving market
access for traditional products. In flood-prone villages like Afala, introducing flood-resistant species such as
Mangifera indica, Artocarpus heterophyllus, and Bambusa arundinacea, along with training in value-added pro-
duction, can enhance resilience and livelihood sustainability. Together, these approaches aim to cultivate a
resilient and sustainable agroforestry landscape in Sivasagar District and beyond.
Multistrata agroforestry systems (MSAFs) are an important category of agroforestry systems where the land is occupied by different strata of vegetation with unique characteristics occupying both spatial and temporal space. It is an age-old practice of growing different species in less space that meets food-producing systems and also maintains ecological integrity, delivering a wide range of products and services. These multistrata include of coffee, cacao, tea, and shade trees, as well as home gardens and multistory tree gardens. This system offers possibilities for the arrangement of various tree species, shrubs, grasses, and vines based on the needs of the farmers. The diversity of crop and tree species generates changes in various morphological, phonological, physiological, and edaphic characteristics that influence the functioning of MSAFs through competition or facilitation combinations. In this chapter, the importance of MSAFs, factors and criteria for selection of species, species planted under multistory gardens, spatial arrangement and planting densities, and the agroecological functions of MSAFs were discussed, covering various prominent MSAFs, viz., home gardens, cocoa- and coffee-based systems, and cardamom-based agroforestry in India.
Urbanization is rapidly increasing in recent years. Many habitats and agricultural lands are converted into residential land uses displacing several species as well as reducing food production systems, respectively. However, several households in urban centers are establishing homegarden agroforestry (HGA) within their residences, which can be considered as important ecological systems that could support plant diversity. This paper aims to elucidate the role of homegarden agroforestry for plant diversity conservation especially in urban landscapes, where human activities dominate and in attaining the sustainable development goals. HGA structures and compositions will be discussed. Implications in relation to plant diversity management and sustainability and prospects will be presented.KeywordsHomegarden agroforestryUrbanizationGreen spaceUrban landscapePlant diversity conservation
The balance and stability of the earth’s weather is significantly influenced by the cover of the tropical evergreen forest. This is especially relevant in the century of industrialization and modernization. These two profusely contribute to the worldwide increase in atmospheric CO2 content. The exponential deposit of atmospheric CO2 has increased the possibility of global warming and climate change. Thereby, tropical green forests provide hope and confidence to serve as potential sinks to mitigate overgrowing carbon dioxide imbalance in the atmosphere. Narpuh Wildlife Sanctuary is a primary and tropical evergreen Forest in the East Jaintia Hills District of Meghalaya. This study stresses the application of various allometric equations and henceforth their best suitability for carbon stock and above-ground biomass estimation in Narpuh Wildlife Sanctuary. For the study, eleven permanent plots of size 31.6 m2 have been set up inside the wildlife sanctuary. A total of 155 woody species and 746 trees were recorded from the permanent plots. The recorded trees were then grouped into two girth classes of 15–70 cm and above 70 cm. It was recorded that carbon content and biomass above ground were higher in trees with girths greater than 70 cm. Many allometric equations which have been derived in the past and in recent years have been justified to be the most suitable ones for forests of a particular country, state or province that falls under government-protected forests or privately-owned forests. It has been noticed that the best suitable model to estimate Biomass above ground in Narpuh Wildlife Sanctuary is the Chambers model with an R2 value of 0.8038 and adjusted R2 of 0.8035. Incidentally, the model given by FAO has an R2 value of 0.5902 and an adjusted R2 value of 0.5897. Hence, it is the least suitable model due to its low R2 value.KeywordsAllometric equationCarbon stockBiomassWildlife sanctuary
Homegardens are spaces where food, medicine, construction materials, and plants of aesthetic value are grown, both for household consumption, but also for sale in markets to supplement household income. Importantly, they are also spaces of cultural significance; gardens are spaces where many household activities are enacted, where household income is supplemented, where cultural memory is maintained. Archaeological explorations of garden spaces, particularly in the Neotropics, have successfully utilized soil chemical, archaeobotanical, and spatial analysis in identifying the location of cultivated spaces in relation to household structures. Having refined our ability to identify homegarden spaces, we can focus on anthropologically oriented questions regarding gender, status, political economy, and identity. In this special issue we are looking beyond gardens as simply utilitarian and functional spaces, and seeing them as places that have social, cultural, personal, and psychological importance. This introductory article will present some of the past and current research on homegardens and provide avenues for future archaeological research.
Tree-dominated, forest gardens (FGs) are an ancient, tropical agricultural land use that farmers continue to practice and value. Knowing why farmers value FGs is important because this can increase livelihood security and the skillful governance of land. We chose Sri Lanka to investigate farmers’ values for land, contextual factors that effect valuation, stressors that impact agriculture, and farmers’ current and future response strategies. Mixed methods were used to collect data from 85 farming households in landholdings across nine locations of the Intermediate agroecological zone (1750–2500 mm). Landholdings comprise land uses with short-term, annual, and semi-perennial crops (paddy, swidden, and cash crop plots) and long-term, perennial or tree crops (FGs, plantations). Farmers’ values were categorised, ranked, and aligned with Utility, Environmental, Aesthetic, Intrinsic, Option and Bequest themes of the Total Economic Value framework (TEV). Farmers give the highest importance to Utility (income, food) and Environmental (friendly biodiversity, leaf litter and soil fertility) values mainly from tree crops. Timber and fuelwood are biological assets that can be optionally converted to cash. Farmers have Intrinsic values (contentment, tranquility, pride) for land bequeathed to future generations. Nevertheless, since livelihoods are stressed by climate variability and extreme events, animal and insect pests, and labour scarcities, farmers adopt diverse response strategies. Of these, farmers favour long-term crop cultivation because trees are relatively resilient to droughts, floods, animal, and insect pests, and require less labour. This study validates why farmers’ pluralistic values for land, trees, and biodiversity must be integrated into national decision- and policy-making for agriculture, forest and biodiversity conservation.
In southern Mexico, the home garden has played a key role in the livelihood security of rural families and in the conservation of agrobiodiversity. This article examines how, as a dominant trend, rural urbanisation has reduced the dependence on home gardening as a livelihood strategy, with a consequent decline in agrobiodiversity. Drawing upon a mixed methods approach involving household surveys and life stories, the article contributes to a better understanding of long-term dynamics in the relationship between agrobiodiversity management and people’s livelihoods, and provides novel evidence on alternative pathways that allow households to maintain greater home garden agrobiodiversity.
Home gardening is promoted as an adaptation strategy to ameliorate the increasing food insecurity from climate change impacts among subsistence farming families in rural sub‐Saharan Africa. Yet, the geographic distribution of home gardens, their setup, management, and the effects on nutrition outcomes have not been fully described. This scoping review aimed to map and synthesize recent evidence on home gardening for two exemplar countries: Burkina Faso and Kenya. Between June and August 2020, we searched, screened, and extracted evidence about home garden projects in both countries, following the PRISMA guidelines for scoping reviews. Peer‐reviewed scientific publications, and gray literature in English and French that reported about subsistence horticulture in rural settings of Burkina Faso or Kenya were included. The characteristics of the documents and the data pertaining to our research objectives were extracted into predefined spreadsheets. The data were synthesized in the form of a narrative review. Our search yielded 949 documents, of which 20 documents were included in the synthesis (Burkina Faso: 8, Kenya: 12). While the gardens varied in composition and size, the majority provided green leafy vegetables and indigenous horticultural crops. The challenges for successful home garden implementation comprised unfavorable climatic conditions, access to and affordability of inputs, water and land, and lack of know‐how. We identified trends for improved food security, diet quality, and nutritional status among the target populations. This scoping review found that there is limited evidence on home garden practices in rural Burkina Faso and Kenya. To enhance the sustainability of home gardens, research and resources should be invested in codesigning context‐specific home gardening projects. Pending rigorous impact evaluation, home gardens appear to be a promising tool for climate change adaptation while simultaneously improving food security and the nutritional situation among women and young children in these two exemplar countries of sub‐Saharan Africa. Home gardening is promoted as an adaptation strategy to ameliorate the increasing food insecurity from climate change impacts among subsistence farming families in rural sub‐Saharan Africa. This scoping review aimed to map and synthesise recent evidence on home gardening for two exemplar countries: Burkina Faso and Kenya. Pending rigorous impact evaluation of home gardening projects, we identified trends for improved food security, diet quality, and nutritional status among women and young children in these two exemplar countries of sub‐Saharan Africa.
In the vast literature on homegardens, most of the studies have focused on describing their properties and functions, while there is scant knowledge about the socioeconomic determinants of homegardening patterns. This paper contributes to filling this gap by assessing the planned agrobiodiversity of homegardens in Yucatán, Mexico, and studying the association between homegardening patterns and contextual and household characteristics. In doing so, the paper draws on key elements of the Capability Approach and the Sustainable Livelihoods Framework. Data was collected in four Yucatecan communities showing different urbanization levels, the heterogeneous presence of a Mayan Indigenous population, and diverse attachment to traditional agricultural livelihoods. A mixed-methods approach was followed, involving household surveys and interviews, and quantitative analysis informed by qualitative insights. Principal components analysis, cluster, and regression analyses were applied to develop a homegarden typology and identify associations among four homegardening patterns and five relevant household characteristics: (1) the household structure and family life cycle; (2) ethnicity; (3) rural-urban interactions; (4) wealth; and (5) participation in government-led development interventions. The paper contributes to broader debates on the nexus of agrobiodiversity and sociocultural and economic interactions and on how these influence alternative pathways to the dominant trend of agrobiodiversity loss.
Homestead garden is an age-old land-use system that has a high level of productivity, stability, and sustainability. The present study was conducted in one of the Panchayaths of Nilgiris District called the Cherangode Panchayath which is a major portion of the Pandalur Taluk. The study revealed a total of 102 species and 223 varieties cultivated by 130 households for consumption. The study also revealed that most people owned land area between 0 and 10 cents land area, i.e., 49 households. A total of 77 species were cultivated by the Mooppan community followed by the Thiyya community with 63 species. The Muslim community cultivated about 52 species, Christian 37 species, and the least of 30 species by the Paniya community. It was found that the most cultivated species belonged to the Cucurbitaceae family, about 12 species were cultivated and about 8 species were cultivated from the Leguminosae family. The most plant type cultivated included herbs (32) and trees (31). The survey pointed to a big problem faced by the Tamilian community who unknowingly spray various chemical pesticides that can create serious health problems. Another fact revealed by the survey is the engagement of women in homestead gardens. This involvement will help children to develop an interest in agriculture and help the transfer of traditional knowledge from one generation to another. The study revealed that almost every household cultivated cucurbits and legumes as they can be used all year round by drying and storing properly. The study also revealed the need for government to interfere in the supply of seed to the people and check the use of various chemicals that are available easily in the market.KeywordsHomestead gardenTraditional knowledgePesticidesArtificial intelligenceComputing
Underutilized crops are widely recognized for their socio-economic, nutritional, and agrobiodiversity values. Studies on underutilized crop farming systems and value chains in Sri Lanka are limited. The research had been undertaken to investigate the underutilized crops in smallholder farming systems, economic contributions, and existing value chains. Primary data were collected from 30 Gramaniladari divisions (GN Divisions) located in twelve Divisional Secretariat (DS) from Uva and Eastern administrative provinces of Sri Lanka. A summary of the different chapters is presented below. Chapter One: Introduction At the onset of this chapter, I have attempted to correlate the global trends toward commercial agriculture and its negative influences on rural farming. In order to do so, I have further tried to see the context of Sri Lanka’s development transition where the agricultural sector plays a decreasing but considerable contribution to the rural sector. Since the rural agricultural sector is considerably dominated by smallholder farmers and underutilized crops, the role of underutilized crops for the economic well-being of them is an important area for in-depth study. I reviewed past researchers’ works related to underutilized crops in Sri Lanka, Asian countries as well as the rest of the world. Based on the review of the literature, I found the research gap of the study. Following the research gap, I formulated four research questions for this study. Chapter Two: Review of literature In this chapter, I have extensively reviewed the literature for the construction of the research framework. At the onset of the chapter, I briefly reviewed the evolution of agriculture and different underutilized crop farming systems. The role of the agricultural sector in rural development was reviewed and explored the performance of the agricultural sector in the Sri Lankan economy. I reviewed different concepts around underutilized crops, farming systems value chains, and smallholders. Second, I discussed the smallholder farming environment in the world. The discussion explored the characteristics of the smallholder farming sector and its potentials for farming underutilized crops. After that, I discussed different value chain concepts and the operation of value chains in the broader operating environment. This discussion further narrowed-down to explore the nature of agricultural value chains and some specific features of those chains. Third, the discussion focuses on the concept of value chain analysis and different common and specific tools that can be adopted in different value chain environments and value chain governance. Chapter Three: The common and potential underutilized crops in smallholders’ farms of south-eastern Sri Lanka: Impact on farmers’ economy and food security In this chapter, I conducted farmers’ household surveys and key informant interviews in Uva and Eastern provinces. At the very beginning, I used the key actor's perceptions of underutilized crops to define underutilized crops refer to the study region. Based on this definition, this chapter further extended to see the main farming systems, land use patterns, underutilized crop composition of farming systems, and the economic contribution of underutilized crops in household economics by identifying high potential underutilized crop for each region. The result indicated that the substantial availability of underutilized crops and contribute to the economic well-being of the farmers. However, the main perception of underutilized crops among involving actors are pretty much related to the current contextual health and nutritional issues in rural Sri Lanka. Chapter Four: Operation of primary and supporting components of selected high potential underutilized crops Identification of high potential underutilized crops brings the path to narrow-down this study by a focus on three main underutilized crops (Finger millet, Red cowpea, and Cashew). This chapter covers mainly production and marketing insights of the selected underutilized crops. To do so at the very beginning the chapter explores the nature of the current farming cycle of those selected crops. The major discussion of the chapter covers the distribution of selected crops in farming systems, the economics of production by exploring primary and supporting activities, and the existing market system. The results indicated that the value chains of underutilized crops are mainly reflected by producers, collectors, whole sellers, and retailers. The middle of the value nodes was complex and composed of several linkages. Farmers allocate a considerable extent of their lands and a significant amount of labour for the selected crop production. Those crops reflect reasonable economic potentials where their family labour plays a significant contribution. Chapter Five: Economic returns on key value chain actors, constraints, and development potentials of high potential underutilized crops By conducting key informant interviews and focus group discussions this chapter attempts to explore further identification of factors insight the existing inefficiencies of the value chains and to see the ways to overcome those inefficiencies. At the very beginning of this chapter explored value addition and value distribution characteristics among actors in selected crop value chains. This economic insight is further strengthened by identifying underlying causes, constraints, and visible consequences in the market systems of each selected crops. The findings showed different reasons behind the poor performances of the selected crop markets by enlightening the potential areas for development by adopting the most relevant interventions. Chapter Six: General discussion and conclusion In this chapter, I have conducted three main discussions such as a) key findings of the study by briefly describing major findings, b) key issues and existing challenges in sustainable farming as well as marking of underutilized crop products, c) main limitations of the study with conclusions and recommendations. The comparison of farming systems characteristics and economic contribution of two different study sites as well as the market systems of the selected underutilized crops show several common and specific features that need adjustments for the economic well-being of the farmers. This dissertation also has several academic contributions. Most importantly the findings bring local definition for underutilized crops while recognises high potential underutilized crops for each region. Market actors who are involved in business and their roles are identified to see the broader market environment. The findings open-up sustainable intensification potentials where new researchers may be interested.
This chapter presents a critique of factors inhibiting progress in Maya economic studies, an introduction to approaches that avoid those pitfalls and examples of successful applications of strategic management theory and sociological organization studies. Some errors identified in current studies include shifts in terminology from relative to absolute; huge spatial and temporal frames of reference obscuring patterns and creating continuities, thus minimizing the degree of change; arguments unacceptable in logical and scientific discourse to criticize alternative interpretations, and other fallacies. Strategic management analysis can be applied to specific features of economies, avoiding such errors and overly broad typological concepts (e.g., “market economy,” “redistribution,” “barter,” “inalienable property”). Instead specific aspects of those and other parts of economies are studied as sets composed of variable elements each of which can be evaluated on relative scales. Successful recent applications to Maya economy are summarized, guiding to a vast literature in the sociology organization and of strategic management on “embeddedness,” manipulation of the “biographies of things,” “economic cultures,” “Trust,” innovation legitimation, vertical integration, institutional agency, and hopefully, providing a new direction in the study of Maya economies.
Urban agroforestry systems are integration of grey and green technologies, capable of recycling and reusing of wastewater and conserving nutrients into biomass, thereby bringing multiple benefits such as fuelwood production, environmental sanitation and eco-restoration. Being an immense source of nutrients and due to its dependable availability, urban and peri-urban farmers can rely on treated wastewater as an alternative source for irrigation in the current water stress scenario. Nevertheless, wastewater contains toxic organic chemical, heavy metals and pathogens which may hamper its use for direct application in food crops. Irrigation of tree plantations with wastewater for fuel and timber production is an approach which helps to overcome health hazards associated with wastewater farming. Integration of food crops with tree species helps to effectively utilize the renewable energy sources and provide additional economic benefits apart from the complimentary services provided through crop production. Agroforestry along with wastewater irrigation helps to mitigate the climate change through carbon sequestration. Other direct benefits are prevention of erosion, regulation of freshwater flows, cooling of terrestrial surfaces, maintaining soil fertility, solution for energy requirements and increased availability of forest products. Still the adoption of urban and peri-urban agroforestry systems by farming community is fewer due to the lack of best-suited cropping system comprising shade-loving remunerative crops as well as poor performance of food crops in the system and ignorance of environmental-associated benefits. Proper intervention of policy support and awareness among the peri-urban farmers will boost the adoption of this integrated system for social, economic and environmental benefits. Wastewater has a huge untapped potential for resource recovery and reuse, in which along with agroforestry the benefits are much higher while considering the total economic value of forestry plantations and crops with their environmental services.
Forest gardens (FGs) are tree-dominant land uses in Sri Lankan farming enterprises. Although FG financial performance has been described, their overall contributions to farming enterprises remain unclear. This information is critical given the global quest for financially viable, sustainable agricultural models. Farming enterprises include On-farm (land uses: FGs, paddy, cash crops, plantations, swidden/chena plots, livestock), Off-farm (employment, trading, grants, welfare) and household components. Forest garden financial performance was compared with other enterprise components in short-(reference year, 2012–2013) and long-terms (beyond 2013). Financial data were collected for 85 farming enterprises in nine locations of the Intermediate zone using Household Income and Expenditure surveys and quantified using accounting procedures. In the short-term, 49% of On-farm income was the value of household consumption while 54% of On-farm expense the value of household contributions. FGs contributed 29% to food and fuelwood self-sufficiency, generated the highest profit, were the most financially efficient land use, and average FG profit (Current assets) was greater than enterprise profit. In the long-term, FGs had the highest number of timber and fuelwood species (biological assets). Their average net realisable value (NRV) was 90% of total NRV for biological assets from all land uses. Since FGs occupied 68% of the study area, their substantial biological and land assets had high Non-Current asset values. Average FG Non-Current asset values accounted for 79% of Total Equity and were farmers' core ownership interest in enterprises. Forest gardens increase the financial viability of farming enterprises. Their financial contributions warrant recognition in national economic performance assessments.
This chapter reviews how homegardens and a number of other traditional agricultural practices survived the aftermath of European conquest of Amazonia. The historical development of homegardens in Amazonia began with the evolution of agriculture and domestication of trees in prehistoric times, followed by the development of cultural complexes along the Amazon River and its main tributaries. These traditional societies, characterized by rich material culture and well-developed agricultural systems, were decimated by the combination of epidemics, wars and slavery that accompanied the European conquest. Yet, the homegardens survived in Amazonia, and today they represent the reorganization of the original indigenous practices within the context of the upheaval and changes brought by colonization and market economies, including the incorporation of introduced Asian fruit trees. Although homegardens near urban centers may provide income, in rural areas they are important chiefly for household subsistence. They are often the focus of experimentation with new tree species and cultivation techniques, and thus have the potential to contribute to the development of other agroforestry systems, and to extension efforts that seek alternatives for agricultural development in Amazonia.
Multistoried village gardens in the vicinity of Bogor (West Java, Indonesia) have long been essential multi-purpose production systems for low-income households. However they are being subjected to important conversion processes linked to socio-economic changes presently found in overcrowded semi-urban zones. Determining factors in their development are a high population increase and the rise of a market economy. Some gardens tend to specialize in commercial growing of fruits or of export crops, others are colonized by houses and associated home-gardens. Traditional gardens gradually lose their earlier ecological and economic features but also become a major asset for the modernization of village economy and society. In addition they bring socio-professional changes to villagers and play a determining role in the search for a new balance in the relationship between cities and villages.
Homegardens in Kerala have long been important multi-purpose agroforestry systems that combine ecological and socioeconomical
sustainability. However, traditional homegardens are subject to different conversion processes linked to socioeconomic changes.
These dynamics were studied in a survey of 30 homegardens. On the basis of a cluster analysis of tree/shrub species density
and subsequent further grouping using homegarden size as additional characteristic, six homegarden types were differentiated.
These were assessed regarding structural, functional, management and dynamics characteristics. Four development stages of
homegardens were found along a gradient from traditional to modern homegardens. Fifty percent of the homegardens still displayed
traditional features, whereas 33% incorporated modern practices. The process of modernisation includes a decrease of the tree/shrub
diversity, a gradual concentration on a limited number of cash-crop species, an increase of ornamental plants, a gradual homogenization
of homegarden structure and an increased use of external inputs. One homegarden was characterised as an adapted traditional
homegarden combining multispecies composition and intensive management practices using internal inputs with commercial production.
In comparison to modern homegardens, this homegarden type offers an example of an alternative development path in adapting
homegardens to changing socioeconomic conditions. The study of structural and functional dynamics of homegardens offers the
opportunity to understand the trends in socio-economic sustainability and how these relate to ecological sustainability.
Homegardens are regarded as sustainable agricultural production systems, although support for this statement by quantitative data has been rare. Out of t he suggested indicators/descriptors for assessing sustainability, plant diversity has been frequently studied. However, species diversity is not static: it varies with time and according to ecological and socioeconomic factors and/or characteristics of the gardens and gardeners. In order to evaluate sustainability of the homegarden system, we assessed soil fertility parameters and changes in diversity of useful plants over time during 2001 - 2004 in 30 homegardens from three villages adjacent to the Lore Lindu National Park in Central Sulawesi, Indonesia. Soil carbon (C) and nitrogen (N) contents decreased over time. In large gardens with different production zones, soil of vegetable zones contained less C and N than that of cacao (Theobroma cacao) zones. Richness of useful plant species was high and increased over time, from 149 species in 2001 to 168 in 2003. Species composition of homegardens from one village, mainly inhabited by migrants, contrasted strongly with those from the other two, inhabited by native farmers. Diversity of useful plants was lower in the migrant village, where soil fertility was low, too. Plant diversity appeared to be influenced to varying extent by a combination of factors such as garden size/age, soil fertility, ethnicity and age of gardener, and market access. The surveyed homegardens did not seem to be managed appropriately to ensure sustainability in terms of soil fertility although they had a high diversity of useful plants.
We examined structural and functional changes in the homegardens of Sukapura village, located in the upper Citarum Watershed
of Indonesia, in relation to the increasing commercialization of agriculture. Our main purpose was to examine the structure
and function of these homegardens during the rapid economic development of this area and the ecological, social, and economic
implications of changes. A standard vegetation survey was used to describe the compositional and structural patterns of vegetation
in the sampled homegardens, and interviewed 94 randomly selected respondents to help us understand the functions of their
homegardens. The results suggest that commercialization in the agricultural sector has changed the structural patterns and
functions of these homegardens. Plant diversity in commercialized (intensively managed) homegardens has decreased owing to
the use of monocultures. The change from subsistence towards commercial farming has been accompanied by decreased plant diversity,
higher risks, higher external inputs, increased instability, and reduced social equitability. The specific needs and preferences
of the owners and market pressures were the main factors that triggered the development of intensive agriculture in the study
area, leading to increased commercialization of homegardens.
Homegardens in West Java and their future development
- O S Abdoellah
Abdoellah O.S. 1990. Homegardens in West Java and their future development. In: Landauer K. and Brazil M. (eds), Tropical home gardens, pp 69 – 79.
Mixed-garden horticulture in Java
- Diversity And Change In C
- Homegarden Cultivation In Indonesia
DIVERSITY AND CHANGE IN C C HOMEGARDEN CULTIVATION IN INDONESIA I I agroforestry, pp 43 – 60. Springer Science, Dordrecht. Terra G.J.A. 1953a. Mixed-garden horticulture in Java. Malaysian J Trop Geogr 1: 33 – 43.
Household gardens: theoretical considerations on an old survival strategy. Potatoes in Food Systems Research Series Report No. 1. International Potato Center Kebon tatangkalan: a disappearing agroforest in the Upper Citarum watershed
- V K Niñez
Niñez V.K. 1984. Household gardens: theoretical considerations on an old survival strategy. Potatoes in Food Systems Research Series Report No. 1. International Potato Center, Lima, Peru, 41p. Parikesit, Takeuchi K., Tsunekawa A. and Abdoellah O.S. 2004. Kebon tatangkalan: a disappearing agroforest in the Upper Citarum watershed, West Java, Indonesia. Agroforest Syst 63: 171 – 182.
Socio-economic characteristics of homestead farming in south Kerala
- K F Wiersum
- J John
- M A Nair
K.F. WIERSUM W W John J. and Nair M.A. 1999. Socio-economic characteristics of homestead farming in south Kerala. J. Trop Agric 37: 107 – 109.
Farming like the forest: traditional homegarden systems in Sri Lanka. Tropical agroecology. Margraf Verlag, Weikersheim, 203p The Kandyan gardens of Sri Lanka
- K Hochegger
- V J Jacob
- W S Alles
Hochegger K. 1998. Farming like the forest: traditional homegarden systems in Sri Lanka. Tropical agroecology. Margraf Verlag, Weikersheim, 203p. Jacob V.J. and Alles W.S. 1987. The Kandyan gardens of Sri Lanka. Agroforest Syst 5: 123 – 137.
Tropical home gardens United Nations University Press, Tokyo, 257p. McConnell D.J. 1992. The forest-garden farms of Kandy, Sri Lanka. Farm systems manage-ment Series No. 3, FAO, Rome, 117p. Michon G. 1983. Village-forest-gardens in West Java
- K Landauer
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Landauer K. and Brazil M. (eds) 1990. Tropical home gardens. United Nations University Press, Tokyo, 257p. McConnell D.J. 1992. The forest-garden farms of Kandy, Sri Lanka. Farm systems manage-ment Series No. 3, FAO, Rome, 117p. Michon G. 1983. Village-forest-gardens in West Java. In: Huxley P.A. (ed.), Plant research and agroforestry, pp 13 – 24.
Indian Council of Agricultural Research An introduction to human ecology research on agricultural systems in Southeast Asia Homegardens: a traditional agroforestry system with a promising future
- Randhawa M S Sauer
Randhawa M.S. 1980. The history of Indian agriculture. Vol. 2, pp 414 – 415. Indian Council of Agricultural Research, New Delhi. Sauer C.O. 1969. Agricultural origins and dispersals (2 nd ed.). M.I.T. Press, New York. 175p. Soemarwoto O. 1984. The Javanese rural ecosystem. In: Rambo A.T. and Sajise P.E. (eds), An introduction to human ecology research on agricultural systems in Southeast Asia, pp 254 – 287. University of Philippines, College, Los Banos. Soemarwoto O. 1987. Homegardens: a traditional agroforestry system with a promising future. In: Steppler H.A. and Nair P.K.R. (eds), Agroforestry: A decade of development, pp 157 – 170.