Home Gardens Sustain Crop Diversity and Improve Farm Resilience in Candelaria Loxicha, Oaxaca, Mexico

Abstract

Home gardens are land use units embedded in a larger land use system, in this case in Candelaria Loxicha, Oaxaca, Mexico. Using a combination of qualitative and quantitative methods, we investigated how home gardens are integrated into local farming practices and how these influence biodiversity. Our findings suggest that home gardens harbour high levels of biodiversity, which are maintained and enriched by farmers' practices, particularly plant and seed exchange. Plant diversity is higher in younger home gardens and in home gardens where owners actively exchange plant material with other people. Through plant exchange, seed storage, and the dispersion of seeds and plants in different land uses, farmers encourage plant diversity and consequently increase the resilience of their farming system in changing climatic, demographic and economic conditions. Both men and women participate in the establishment, care and management of home gardens, but they are responsible for different plants and home garden functions. For economic reasons, the inhabitants of Candelaria Loxicha are increasingly engaging in international migration. Migrants, upon their return bring new ideas and plants that might transform the rural landscape.

Los sistemas agroforestales tradicionales de México: Una aproximación biocultural

“…En Candelaria Loxicha, zona subcálido-húmeda donde habitan pueblos zapotecos, Aguilar-Støen et al (2009) documentaron que las personas distinguen a los huertos de los patios, consideran a los primeros como espacios para la producción para el mercado y a los segundos como espacios para numerosas funciones, más semejante al concepto de huerto planteado en este trabajo. Los patios son importantes reservorios de diversidad de plantas útiles, los autores registraron 233 especies en 31 patios, donde dominan los árboles con usos comestible y ornamental, pero también plantas medicinales, leña, especias, artesanías y construcción.…”

Flexibility of coffee agroforestry with diversified shade tree composition: A case study in Panama

“…Each household is surrounded by a patio, which has a variety of functions including growing trees such as coffee and fruit trees, cultivating vegetables, and keeping livestock such as chickens and pigs (Aguilar et al 2009, Heckadon 2009). …”

Diversity of Hymenoptera, Cultivated Plants and Management Practices in Home Garden Agroecosystems, Kyrgyz Republic

“…2) documentation of ecological processes within home gardens (Baijukya & de Steenhuijsen Piters 1998, Gajaseni & Gajaseni 1999 and the comparison of gardens to intact forests (Boster 1983, Vickers 1983 3) documentation of user-defined zones of management (Westmacott 1992, Jugerius 1998, Withrow-Robinson 1999, De Clerck & Negreros-Castillo 2000, Backes et al 2001, Mendez et al 2001), 4) documentation of socioeconomic variables that may influence management (Nautiyal et al 1998, High & Shackleton 2000, Shrivastava & Heinen 2005 Webb 2009), 5) eliciting of aesthetic perceptions (Smardon 1988, Nassauer 1995, Grove & Burch 1997, Nassauer 1998) and 6) more holistic studies that consider many of the above variables (Alcorn 1981, Coomes & Ban 2004, Aguilar-Støen et al 2009). …”

“…Home garden management decisions are based on both global and local ecological factors, cultural norms and values, and socioeconomic realities of the land manager (Lamont et al 1999, Mendez et al 2001, Coomes & Ban 2004, Aguilar-Støen et al 2009). An overlooked ethnoecological model, the Landscape-Lifescape model, provides a framework that could be applied to home garden research to more clearly elucidate and distinguish which factors exert pressure on management decisions of home gardeners.…”

“…Home gardens, with different combinations of trees, shrubs, and other crops are a type of small-scale agricultural system that occurs throughout the world with the commonality being that they are based around the household with daily use of plant products within them (Alcorn 1981, Agelet et al 2000, Aguilar-Støen et al 2009). Home gardens are considered by some to be small-scale agroforestry systems (Sinclair 1999) while others recognize home gardens as specialized agroforestry systems subject to different rules of management due to their proximity to the house and the daily use of plant products within them (Alcorn 1981, Agelet et al 2000.…”