Traditional home garden agro-biodiversity dynamics, agro-ecosystem services, and management practices in smallholder farmers setting, South-Central Ethiopia

Abstract

Traditional home gardens are rich in agro-biodiversity and are crucial for improving and diversifying the livelihood of smallholder farmers. Though many researches are carried out on home gardens in tropical regions, there are only few studies on the dynamics of traditional home gardens, agro-ecosystem services, indigenous management practices, and roles in mitigating climate shocks, which is the objective of the present study. For the same purpose, three sites were purposively selected out of which 308 sample smallholder households were chosen using a simple random sampling technique for a household survey. Key informant interviews, focus group discussions, and field observations were also used to collect data for cross-checking the data collected through the house hold survey. Results demonstrate that there was a wide-ranging diversity of crops in traditional home garden landscape. Both annual and perennial crops were incorporated into the home gardens to enhance their multiple agro- ecosystem services, including enhancing resilience to climate shocks. They ranged from herbaceous to large trees and food to cash crops. The primary agro-ecosystem services that the home garden agro-biodiversity delivered were diversifying the sources of food, income, and medicine, as well as improving food security. Home gardens were largely managed by indigenous knowledge, including hand weeding, manure and compost application, nursery preparation, fencing, and flood run-off control. The agro-biodiversity in traditional home gardens is more diverse, dynamic, and resilient to climate shocks. Nonetheless, they are neglected hotspots of agro-biodiversity and sociocultural diversity. In conclusion, the agro-biodiversity in traditional home gardens promotes food availability, accessibility, and utilization virtually all year round as well as contributes to the preservation of agricultural genetic and cultural diversity.