The structure of urban and peri-urban gardens in Khartoum, Sudan

Abstract

A verdant strip of urban and peri-urban agriculture (UPA) lines the banks of the River Nile at Khartoum (Sudan), but little is known about its physical structure and species composition. This study was conducted in 120 gardens, covering 160 ha at the urban locations of Tuti Island and Shambat and the peri-urban location of El Halfaya to determine the extent and plant composition of UPA gardens in Greater Khartoum, which includes the cities of Khartoum, Khartoum North and Omdurman. The survey identified 84 plant species from 35 plant families, of which 47 were utilised as crops predominantly for commercial production of fruits, vegetables, spices and condiments, grains, and fodder. The gardens of Tuti Island, where production of lime (Citrus aurantiifolia (L.) Swingle) was widespread, had a mean species richness of 1.7 and a Shannon index of 0.4. The gardens of Shambat, where leafy vegetables were common, had higher crop diversity levels with a mean species richness of 4.4 and a Shannon index of 1.2. The gardens of El Halfaya, which was the only location where the production of some spices and condiments was recorded, had a mean species richness of 3.7 and a Shannon index of 1.0. All three study locations were largely dominated by monocultural commercial production relying heavily on external inputs. The four groups of gardens distinguished by cluster analysis were cultivated by 21 ethnic groups, 46% of the surveyed households relied on additional off-farm income and gardens supplied 12% of household food. Economic and ecological benefits of the studied UPA gardens might be enhanced if crop diversity and structural complexity of these gardens were increased.

Home gardens: a promising approach to enhance household food security and wellbeing

“…Much of the literature focuses on home gardens in the tropical areas in Central and South America [22][23][24][25]. There is also a substantial interest for home gardens in South and South-East Asia [26][27][28][29] and Africa [30][31][32][33][34]. Conversely, only a few documented studies exist on home gardens from temperate regions [35][36][37][38] and from developed countries [32,[39][40][41][42].…”

Horizontal nutrient flows and balances in irrigated urban gardens of Khartoum, Sudan

“…The latter competes with agriculture in terms of land, labour and manure for brick production due to its high returns. However, urban gardening is an area wise much more widespread activity along the banks of the River Nile (Schumacher et al 2009;Thompson et al 2010).…”

The genetic diversity of leaf vegetable jute mallow (Corchorus spp.): A review

“…Eight species of Corchorus and the two cultivated species occur in India in diverse ecological conditions and habitats (Mir et al 2008). Corchorus is also cultivated in Caribbean, Brazil, Cyprus, Greece, Crete, Bangladesh, China, Japan and in the middle East (Grubben and Denton 2004;Thompson et al 2010).The variation in Corchorus spp. is said to be due to adaptation to various climates and habitats or occurrence over large geographical areas resulting in spatially isolated populations (Knight et al 2005;Benor et al 2011).…”