Home garden system dynamics in Southern Ethiopia

Beyene Teklu Mellisse,Gerrie W J Van De Ven,Ken E Giller,Katrien Descheemaeker

doi:10.1007/s10457-017-0106-5

Beyene Teklu Mellisse, Gerrie W J Van De Ven + Show 2 more

https://doi.org/10.1007/s10457-017-0106-5

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Abstract

Home gardens in southern Ethiopia are regarded as efficient farming systems, allowing interactions and synergies between crop, tree and livestock components. However, these age-old traditional home gardens are evolving rapidly in response to changes in both the socio-economic and biophysical environment. Altered cropping patterns, farm size and component interactions may affect the systems’ sustainability. Home gardens exhibit a huge diversity in farms and farming systems, which needs to be understood in order to design interventions for improvement. Dynamics of home gardens were studied over two-decades (1991–2013) based on a survey of 240 farm households and focus group discussions. Farms were grouped into five types: Khat-based, Enset-cereal-vegetable, Enset-based, Enset-coffee and Enset-livestock. Farm trajectories revealed a shift from food-oriented Enset-based and Enset-livestock systems to (1) cash crop oriented khat-based systems, and (2) combined food and cash crop oriented Enset-cereal-vegetable systems. In densely populated, market proximate areas a major trend was expansion of khat, from 6 to 35% of the area share per farm, while the combined area share of enset and coffee decreased from 45 to 25%. Concurrently, the cattle herd size fell from 5.8 TLU to 3.9 TLU per household. In medium populated, less accessible areas the trend was consolidation of combined production of food and cash crops. Enset and coffee together maintained a share of over 45%. Easy transport and marketing of the perishable cash-generating khat compared with traditional crops favoured its cultivation among smallholders located close to markets. The insights in home garden change in response to increasing population pressure, decreasing farm size and market development may help to design interventions to increase system sustainability.

Highlights

Home gardens are characterized by multipurpose trees and shrubs in intimate association with annual and perennial crops and livestock around the homestead (Kumar and Nair 2006)
With the wider aim to contribute to the development of tailored interventions to improve agricultural production and productivity, this paper aims to: (1) understand the diversity in home garden systems of southern Ethiopia; (2) analyse trends in farm size, cropping pattern and livestock population over the past two decades; (3) explain the spatial patterns of change in home gardens in relation to market access, agro-ecological conditions and population density
The variability in land use indicated a large diversity in farming systems in Sidama and Gedeo zones of southern Ethiopia

Summary

Introduction

Home gardens are characterized by multipurpose trees and shrubs in intimate association with annual and perennial crops and livestock around the homestead (Kumar and Nair 2006). Home gardens ensure a sustained availability of multiple products and generate income (Kumar and Nair 2004). Despite their small size (Kumar and Nair 2006), home gardens fulfil most of the basic food and nutritional needs of the households, while the multi-storied configuration and high species diversity maintain their structure and function in the face of external stress (Kumar and Nair 2004). Enset leaves are a key livestock feed and used as mulch to reduce soil erosion and runoff (Amede and Diro 2005). Enset fulfils both productive and protective functions (Kippie 2002). Coffee is mainly a cash crop, but is consumed (Kippie 2002; Abebe 2005)

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