Homegarden Species Research Articles

English

The study was conducted on homegardens of Hawassa city, Southern Ethiopia with the aim of documenting useful plant species; identifying the internal and external household factors related to useful plant species diversity in and around home gardens and examining its contribution to household food security and income generation. A random sample of 120 homegardens from eight sub-cities of Hawassa city was used to collect useful plant species data. Techniques used were focus group discussion, semi-structured interviews, home garden tour, market survey, free listing, priority ranking, and preference ranking. A total of 258 useful plant species were documented, of which 47.29% were ornamental plants, 29.75% food plants, and 15.89% medicinal plants. Fabaceae was the dominant family represented by 9 genera and 20 species, followed by Euphorbiaceae and Asteraceae with 17 and 16 species each respectively. Homegarden size of the study area ranged from 220 to 1235 m2 with a mean size of 571 m2. The age of homegarden is ranged from 15 years old to 55 years old with a mean aged of 28. The number of species in the homegarden ranges from 10 to 45 with the mean of 23. The study indicates that home gardens are contributing to food security, income generation and livelihoods in Hawassa city through production of ornamental, food plants, fodder, medicinal, timber and construction. The study recommended that the management of useful plant species in homegardens will be scaled up and further expanded and assisted by agricultural extensions in urban areas in Ethiopia. Key words: Urban home garden, plant species diversity, household livelihood, food security.

Effects of Household Characteristics on Homegarden Characteristics in Kalaroa Upazila, Satkhira District, Bangladesh

Tropical and subtropical homegardens often show variation in floristic and structure depending on household characteristics. This research investigated how the household characteristics could influence homegarden vegetation characteristics for 50 randomly selected households in Kalaroa Upazila of Satkhira District, Bangladesh. The central analytical tool to test the relationships between household and homegarden characteristics was multiple linear regression. The results revealed that household landholdings, income, homestead size, and time spent for homegardening were strong predictors of homegarden vegetation characteristics. Economic conditions of the household, experience of the household head, and homegarden investment explained 48 % of the total plant diversity. The combined effects of all significant variables explained about 57 % of the variability in species richness. If homegarden species composition and structure receive attention by concerned authorities, the development of economically viable and ecologically sustainable homegardens can be one aim of the policy guidelines with regard to natural resource conservation and sustainable management basis in Bangladesh could act as a principal source for employment of women in rural Bangladesh.

SPECIES DIVERSITY, UTILIZATION AND CONSERVATION IN HOME GARDENS OF SOME RESIDENTIAL AREAS, COIMBATORE, INDIA.

The present study was aimed at documenting species composition, utilization and conservation of plant species growing in home gardens of 10 residential areas of Coimbatore city, India. Household interviews and home garden surveys revealed that all the 109 plant species included in 60 families included have someeconomic uses or with ornamental significance. Higher number of species was herbs followed by shrubs, trees, climbers, succulent herbs, vines and sub-shrubs. The families viz., Asteraceae, Apocynaceae and Acanthaceae contributed higher number of plant species than the other families to the home gardens. Thespecies namely, Celosia cristata, Chrysanthemum odoratum and Ocimum basilicum have registered 50% frequency among the home gardens sampled which indicates that these species have distributed and maintained in comparatively higher number of home gardens. The home garden species are mainly under thecategories of vegetables, fruits, ornamentals, economic important species and medicinal. These results further report revealed that homegardens satisfy various household needs like food, ornamentals, medicines, building material, religious and ceremonial uses.

Management of medicinally useful plants by European migrants in South America

Ethnopharmacological relevanceUsing the example of Polish migrants living in the subtropics of Argentina, we attempt to expand knowledge about migrant strategies for retaining their agency in medicinal plant procurement. Aim of the studyIs to state which environments play a pivotal role as a source of medicinal plants for the study community, and if a gradient of relevance exists in the exploitation of medicinally useful species between the most proximate and the most distant habitats. We particularly aim to answer the following questions: (1) if Polish migrants have changed their patterns of obtaining medicinal plants during the migratory process; and (2) if the choice of strategies for medicinal plants depends on: (a) the degree of floristic and environmental similarity between the home and host country; (b) the perception and usefulness of certain environments as a source of medicinal plants; (c) the degree of contact with the local population in the host country, and/or (d) the degree of contact between migrants and their homeland. Material and methodsThe analysis is grounded in data from different types of interviews and a homegarden inventory addressed to 72 study participants. Voucher specimens of species mentioned were gathered and identified. Two indices were used as proxy measures: (1) the number of species obtained from each habitat, and (2) the number of citations for both modes and places of obtaining medicinal plants. ResultsDue to different flora found in Argentina, Polish migrants could reconstruct only bits and pieces of their native pharmacopoeia. They could not acquire medicinal plants either from relatives in Poland or via importation. Therefore they had to develop new strategies for securing medicinal resources. During the migratory process, Poles in Misiones changed forms and places of obtaining medicinal plants. Cultivated species from homegardens play the most important role, while in the native country homegarden species were used sparsely. The second most important environment for medicinal plant procurement is the forest, whose exploitation was increased by contact with local mestizos and indigenous groups. ConclusionsThis study clearly shows that traditional knowledge can be adaptive and resilient. New species have been selected and incorporated from mestizos, and indigenous people, and at the same time the use of some legacy plants has been preserved. The importance of home gardens as a venue for medicinal plants is another facet of this adaptive process. Traditional knowledge is resilient too, because despite the many changes that have occurred, Polish people have maintained phytotherapy as their preferred form of treating ailments, and managed to retain certain species brought from Europe as the most relevant.

Pre-Columbian floristic legacies in modern homegardens of Central Amazonia.

Historical ecologists have demonstrated legacy effects in apparently wild landscapes in Europe, North America, Mesoamerica, Amazonia, Africa and Oceania. People live and farm in archaeological sites today in many parts of the world, but nobody has looked for the legacies of past human occupations in the most dynamic areas in these sites: homegardens. Here we show that the useful flora of modern homegardens is partially a legacy of pre-Columbian occupations in Central Amazonia: the more complex the archaeological context, the more variable the floristic composition of useful native plants in homegardens cultivated there today. Species diversity was 10% higher in homegardens situated in multi-occupational archaeological contexts compared with homegardens situated in single-occupational ones. Species heterogeneity (β-diversity) among archaeological contexts was similar for the whole set of species, but markedly different when only native Amazonian species were included, suggesting the influence of pre-conquest indigenous occupations on current homegarden species composition. Our findings show that the legacy of pre-Columbian occupations is visible in the most dynamic of all agroecosystems, adding another dimension to the human footprint in the Amazonian landscape.

Diversity of Tropical Fruits in the Farmlands of Central Western Ghats, India and its Contribution to the Household Income

Diversity of tropical fruit tree (TFT) species, their occurrence and relationship with cultivated species in homegardens and their use by humans has rarely been studied systematically in Central Western Ghats. Among all the nine villages sampled in three bioclimatic zones, a total of 10,202 individuals belonging to 55 species were recorded. Mangifera indica was the predominantly (n=4,496) found TFT species in the home-gardens and farmlands of Uttara Kannada district. Richness was highest in up-ghat zone (10.92) and substantial lower in coastal zone (5.95) and lowest in eastern plains (4.04). Major factors contributing to low richness is the increasing replacement with exotic commercial crops (cashew) in coastal zone and the low rainfall and varied climatic conditions in eastern zone. Villages of the up-ghat zone, on an average, showed richness index of 10.92 while its value reduced nearly by half when villages of the coastal zone were considered (5.95). The lowest average richness index was found among the villages of the eastern plains (4.04). Overall, nearly one third of all TFT species (36.36 per cent) were non-native to the Western Ghats which was similar in all three zones. However, non-native trees were dominant in coastal zone (54.96%) and less prominent in up-ghat (31.58%) and eastern zone (13.42%). Average family income derived from TFT was Rs 9.595 in coastal zone, Rs 4.207 in up-ghat zone and Rs 10,591 in eastern zone. Contribution of native and non-native TFT species to total household income is low in all three zones, highest contribution was measured in eastern zone (8.18% of the total family income) and coastal zone (7.56%) and even lower in up-ghat zone (2.27%). Correlation analysis showed a positive relationship between diversity and total household income. Regression analysis showed that total family income postivily contributes to the level of TFT diversity found on farmlands, this contribtion was most significant in coastal and up-ghat zone.

Medicinal plants cultivated in Bapedi traditional healers homegardens, Limpopo Province, South Africa.

Plants used for medicinal purposes are very common feature in Bapedi traditional healer's home-gardens, but information about their diversity and application is not available. To investigate medicinal plants found in Bapedi healer's home-gardens, 51 traditional health practitioners were interviewed using a semi-structured questionnaire in 17 municipalities of the Limpopo Province of South Africa, during the first half of 2013. A total of 43 plant species (67.4% indigenous and 32.5% exotics) from 32 families, mostly from the Asteraceae and Apocynaceae (9.3% each) were documented. Species cultivated in home-gardens were used to treat three major groups of ailments that include sexually transmitted infections (44.1%), chronic diseases of life style (44.1%) and reproductive ailments (32.5%). The exotics Catharanthus roseus (54.9%) and Carica papaya (15.6%) was the most cultivated. Threatened (11.6%) and protected (6.9%) species are also present in home-gardens, mostly due to their unavailability in natural areas. This study concludes that the practice of cultivating medicinal plant species in home-gardens is a positive development that in the long term will sustain both species and accompanying indigenous knowledge, as well as preserve the cultural identity of the Bapedi.

Effects of transformation processes on plant species richness and diversity in homegardens of the Nuba Mountains, Sudan

Traditional homegardens (HGs) are considered to harbor high levels of plant diversity and have been therefore characterized as sustainable agro-ecosystems suitable for on-farm (incl. circa situm) conservation of plant genetic resources. While the functional structure of traditional HGs is poorly understood specifically for semi-arid and arid regions, their plant species richness and diversity is increasingly threatened by recent and fast evolving agricultural transformation processes. This has been particularly claimed for traditional jubraka HG systems of Sudan. Therefore, sixty-one HGs in four villages of the Nuba Mountains, South-Kordofan Province, Sudan, were randomly selected, geographically recorded and plant richness and abundance determined and plant diversity parameters calculated. In addition, socio-economic household data were assessed by interviews and soil samples taken to allow a comprehensive analysis of putative factors affecting HG plant diversity across different villages, levels of commercialization and plant species composition based clusters. A total of 110 species from 35 plant families were grown in the HGs along with 71 ornamentals. Perennial species accounted for 57 % including 12 indigenous fruit tree (IFT) species and six exotic fruit tree species. Mean species richness of useful plant species (excluding ornamentals) per HG was 23 (range 6–46). On average, 41 % of the 23 species per HG were of exotic origin, however, with a large range (21–83 %) among locations. Mean diversity and evenness indices were 1.46 (range 0.49–2.42) and 0.48 (0.15–0.87), respectively. The level of commercialization of HGs only marginally affected species diversity measures although the species richness was significantly higher for commercial than subsistence HGs. Species richness was higher on lower (6.6–7.2) pH soils. IFT richness was highly variable, but non-significantly different across the four locations. Plant species richness and diversity was high in comparison with other HG systems in semi-arid regions. Cluster analysis was found to be a valuable tool to classify HGs and to extract homogeneous HG types with low, intermediate and high richness and diversity. In addition, the share of exotic and ornamental species in HGs indicated a trend towards the loss of traditional farming practices, particularly in areas with good market access. The data did not indicate the hypothesized loss of inter-specific diversity due to commercialization and species richness was numerically even higher for market-oriented HGs compared to subsistence ones.

Diversity of Tree Flora in Homegardens in Urban Proximity of Anuradhapura City, Sri Lanka

It was hypothesised that the land ownership with clear titles has an influence on incorporating perennial tree flora. Hence, this study compares the types and density of tree species in homegardens of inherited and settled lands in close proximity of Anuradhapura city, with subsistence farming activities. Mean harvestable tree density was 54.5 trees/ac in inherited lands compared to 40.3 trees/ac in settled lands. In spite of the general similarity in tree flora between the two categories of homegardens, certain tree species are more abundant in one than the other. Exotic timber tree flora represented approximately 30% of total tree population in settled compared to 16% in inherited. Exotic timber tree flora mainly dominated by Tectona grandis and Berrya cordifolia in settled lands concerning more economic returns. In inherited lands, multipurpose trees i.e. Artocarpus heterophyllus, Azadirachta indica and Mangifera indica were highly abaundanat concering diversity and food security. Cocos nucifera was the most abaundant tree specis in both categories accounting more than 40% abaundance. Tree species such as Tamarindus indica was restricted to inherited lands and Felicium decipiens and Swietenia macrophylla to the settled lands. It is advocated that the settled farmers should preserve more diversity among trees as inherited farmers, which enhance food and economic security under diminishing climatic suitability for crop production. Nonetheless, this study awaked an important entity for future carbon crediting programmes, which would be a win-win situation in forestry and farming aspects.

Ricebean in Home Gardens of the Chitwan Valley

Ricebean is a neglected and underutilized grain legume grown in specific pockets by poor and marginal farmers. Despite being a multipurpose legume, its use in food, fodder and green manure crop were limited to farmers knowledge. Recognizing multiple use of ricebean a reconnaissance survey was conducted in Chitwan valley to assess the potential of ricebean as one of the home garden species in December 2007. Household survey was done to appraise the knowledge on ricebaean and its use. Agro-morphological traits were analysed. The study showed ricebean to be a new crop in the valley. Rice bean is helping the farmers to diversify their diet. Ricebean is also a good source of fodder and farmers believe that ricebean enriches soil fertility in the home gardens. Descriptive analysis of the agro-morphological traits showed diversity in the ricebean accessions grown by the farmers. The study clearly indicated that ricebean can be a potential crop in the home gardens of the Chitwan valley.

Home gardens: an assessment of their biodiversity and potential contribution to conservation of threatened species and crop wild relatives in Benin

Despite growing literature supporting the importance of home gardens (HG) as biodiversity hotspots, knowledge of patterns of their contribution to conservation of threatened species and crop wild relatives (CWR) across climate and culture in Africa is still limited. This investigation was conducted across three climatic zones to assess the floristic diversity of home gardens and the extent to which they contribute to conservation of threatened species and CWR. Overall, 240 home gardens were sampled and their floristic diversity assessed. The ecological importance of recorded species was determined per climatic zone using the importance value index (IVI). A cluster analysis was performed to group the species according to their IVI-values and a principal component analysis helped to identify the most important species. 285 species were inventoried throughout the study area. Home garden species’ diversity globally declined from the drier to the wetter zone but was highest in the transition zone. The average number of species found per HG was 10.1 and varied weakly across zones (9.07, Guineo-Congolean zone; 10.77, Sudano-Guinean zone; and 10.53, Sudanian zone). The most important home gardens species in the Sudanian, the Sudano-Guinean and the Guineo-Congolean zones were respectively: Abelmoschus esculentus (L.) Moench and Hibiscus asper Hook.f.; Solanum lycopersicum L. and Zea mays L.; Ipomoea aquatica Forssk. and Senna occidentalis (L.) Link. They were mainly vegetables and used as food and/or medicinal plant species. Twenty CWR and twelve threatened species were recorded and were also mainly used for food and medicinal purposes. Thorough research on socioeconomic factors supporting possession of HG and choice of managed species as well as indigenous management strategies of HG and dynamic of traditional knowledge related to HG may help to deeply assess home gardens’ effectiveness in biodiversity conservation.

Magic Plants of Amazonia and Their Contribution to Agrobiodiversity

This article relies on ethnographic and household survey data to examine the contribution of magic plants to the overall diversity of plant species managed by rural households in the municipality of Borba, Amazonas state, Brazil. The resulting analysis shows that more than 27 percent of the species managed in smallholder farming communities in Borba are believed to have symbolic powers or magical properties. Furthermore, while households that managed magic plants did not demonstrate a significantly higher average of plant species than those households that did not, households with magic plants did manage a significantly higher average of plant species in home gardens. Drawing on qualitative data, this article discusses the usage of such magic plants, exploring their symbolic powers and their relationship to gender and healing while also considering the ambiguities in their classification. To conclude, it is argued that magic plants and their meanings represent more than an anthropological novelty, but hav...

Estructura y función de los huertos caseros de las comunidades afrodescendientes asentadas en la cuenca del río Atrato departamento del Chocó, Colombia

In order to characterize the structural and functional home gardens of Atrato river watershed, Choco, Colombia, were evaluated during 2009 and 2010 twenty-four home gardens in the communities of La Vuelta, Boraudo, Dona Josefa, Quibdo, Medio Atrato and Rio Sucio spread across the three sectors Atrato river watershed. Were analyzed the vegetation growth habit, was applied species importance coefficient (CIE) of the home garden, using as endpoints the level of utilization of the species, biophysical importance (relative frequency) and commercial demand. We used rapid rural appraisal techniques to gather information on the uses of home garden species. 74 species were found distributed in 67 genera and 49 botanical families, organized into three stratas: tree, shrub, herbaceous. In the arboretum strata, Bactris gasipaes, Inga edulis , and Bixa Orellana had higher CIE, in the shrub strata, the most representative species were Alibertia patinoi (Cuatrec.) Delprete & CH Perss, Musa spp, and Citrus lemon , and in the herbaceous strata, Ocimum sp, Eringyum foetidum, Saccharum officinarum, had higher CIE. The local importance of these species is justified by the use in food, traditional medicine, among other uses of socioeconomic and cultural importance of communities.

Medicinal and edible wild fruit plants of Botswana as emerging new crop opportunities

There is a burgeoning need for the promotion of medicinal plants and edible fruit plants as crop in Botswana because these are re-emerging as health aid. Medicinal plants constitute one of the important overlooked areas of international development. They represent a form of biodiversity with the potential to do much good and not just in the healthcare. Indeed, the production and processing of medicinal plants offers the possibility of fundamentally upgrading the lives and well-being of peoples in rural regions. Botswana’s medicinal plants are over-harvested for use as human and livestock medicines. There is therefore, a risk of depletion and extinction of the most sought after species. Initiatives should be put in place to propagate, cultivate and conserve species population through the promotion of community-based and commercial nurseries. Naturally medicinal yields from the wild are unpredictable as the supplies are at the mercy of the weather, pests and other uncontrollable variables. Farming will even out the supply, regularize trade and make available to rural areas new sources of income. In international market, the opportunities are emerging day by day for the trade of medicinal plants to fetch foreign exchange for the country. In Botswana, pilot farmer based cultivation trials for selected number of threatened and indigenous species in home gardens to supply local needs and income generation are on-going. Hoodia gordonii(appetite suppressant), Harpagophytum procumbens (anti-inflammatory) and Artemisia afra (anti-malaria and antioxidant), Sclerocarya birrea (nutritional and medicinal) are some of the plants whose domestication offers a lucrative avenue for income generation as the global demand for plants as sources of drugs and novel foods increases. Initiatives to establish nurseries and ecological medicinal centres to encourage propagation and to provide species to local communities will assist in the conservation, sustainable use and offer opportunity for economic diversification. This paper explores the possibilities of cultivating medicinal and edible wild fruit plants of Botswana as cash crops. Key words: Botswana medicinal plants, edible wild fruits, herbal teas, domestication, economic value.

Traditional practice of palm husbandry in the southeastern region of rural Bangladesh: status and potentials

An exploratory study was conducted in Feni, in southeast Bangladesh, to determine the status and potentials of palm husbandry in the rural economy. A total of 48 households in the study area were interviewed using a semi-structured questionnaire. The farmers were categorized into five groups based on their landholdings. Palms comprised the highest percentage (53%) of homegarden species. The most common palm was betel nut (Areca catechu). This species was distributed over five different geographical sites, of which roadsides were most common. Farmers with medium landholdings had the greatest number of palms. Farmers typically received considerably less compensation than distributors higher in the marketing chain who handled their product. Juice or sap from the wild date palm (Phoenix sylvestris) gave the highest net average profit per liter and annual income per tree. Landless farmers gain the highest proportion of their mean annual income from palm husbandry.

SECURING FAMILY NUTRITION THROUGH PROMOTION OF HOME GARDENS: UNDERUTILIZED PRODUCTION SYSTEMS IN NEPAL

ISHS International Symposium on Underutilized Plants for Food Security, Nutrition, Income and Sustainable Development SECURING FAMILY NUTRITION THROUGH PROMOTION OF HOME GARDENS: UNDERUTILIZED PRODUCTION SYSTEMS IN NEPAL

Local Knowledge and Management of the Royal Fern (Osmunda regalis L.) in Northern Spain: Implications for Biodiversity Conservation

This study reports the harvesting, management, trading and use of the royal fern (Osmunda regalis) in Cantabria (Spain), where medicinal plant gathering has been mainly abandoned and nowadays only few species are still commonly gathered. We interviewed 50 adults of different age, sex, and origins to obtain information on local knowledge and management practices of royal fern. Osmunda regalis is locally considered a highly efficient remedy. The rhizome has been traditionally employed in Cantabria mainly for the treatment of bone fractures, joint disorders and rheumatic and arthritic pain. Its consumption prevails in rural areas but it is also employed in towns and cities and its demand has led to small-scale marketing. More than half of the interviewees (54%) had only passive knowledge about their medicinal uses while the rest of informants (46%) were consumers, collectors or sellers (22% ‘collector-consumers’, 6% ‘non collector-consumers’, 4% ‘collector-sellers’ and 14% ‘non collector-sellers’). People from villages harvested O. regalis for their own consumption and expressed concern about overexploitation by a rising demand from urban areas, whereas people from cities were unaware of the ecology of the fern. The scarcity of the fern has led to rural residents to develop local management practices that contribute to the species conservation. These practices included keeping the location of the fern secret, not harvesting the complete rhizome for not killing the plant and allowing its regeneration, and cultivating the species in home-gardens. The inclusion of local knowledge in harvesting regulations might result in environmental norms accepted and internalized by the local population.

Home gardens management of key species in Nepal: a way to maximize the use of useful diversity for the well-being of poor farmers

The purpose of this study is to identify key home garden species in order to address basic research questions aimed at understanding farmers' home gardens management practices. The study was conducted in two contrasting Hill and Tarai sites in Nepal with households (HHs) ranging from 355 to 634. Unlike larger production systems, home gardens harbour many species in small areas often with a few crop varieties and species that are not well represented in larger fields. Given the number of species and their small population sizes, species and genetic diversity are best studied by identifying representative key species characterizing the complex productive niches within farms. Although species diversity within community is large (172–342), 24 key species were identified for the study. There is no fixed size of a home garden. The log of home garden size and species richness was positively correlated (r = 0.42,P < 0.001). Species richness was significantly higher in vegetable followed by fodder, fruits and spices. This paper also explores the diversity in home gardens to identify the composition and characteristics of the key species and how they are managed, used and conserved. Most of the farmers save the seeds of these home garden species for their own use, but many also exchange and buy and sell seed in local weekly market. Farmers' practices for selecting seed vary according to the reproductive biology of the key home garden species. Home gardens provide the HH with fresh and diverse supply of nutritious food, which improves their self-sufficiency, while conserving diversity on-farm. Despite this, they are neglected in research and development by policy makers and researchers.

Household and homegarden characteristics in southwestern Bangladesh

Homegardens around the world often exhibit remarkable variation in composition and structure depending on the physiographic and climatic conditions of the area and a wide variety of household characteristics. This research investigated whether households’ contextual attributes have a quantitative and predictable relationship with homegarden vegetation structure from a total of 402 randomly selected households in southwestern Bangladesh. The central analytical tool to test the relationship between household characteristics and the homegarden vegetation structure was multiple regression. The moderate to low regression R 2 values revealed that most household characteristics were not strong predictors of homegarden vegetation structure. Despite the weak explanatory power of the majority household characteristics, time spent and homestead size had the strongest relationship with species richness and income in a homegarden. Households being the main source of labor for a majority of households suggest that outside labor shortage would not influence homegarden vegetation structure. We suggest that women’s active participation in homegardening activities to reduce gender inequality in the family which will perhaps result in more diverse and economically viable homegarden. However, increasing population density and the concomitant fragmentation of landholdings to homesteads may create opportunity for homegarden promotion in Bangladesh. Our results of decreased species richness in the homegarden with improved roads and proximity to market support the general hypothesis of subsistence homegardens and did not reinforce the general fears of gradual decline in species richness due to a market economy. Household characteristics had no influence on the presence of IUCN Red Listed species in the homegarden, except for gender and education of the household head. However, most homegardeners were unaware about the status of red listed species, suggesting that occurrence of red listed species in homegardens was by chance. Thus, efforts to improve awareness and to save and conserve rare species from extirpation are needed.

Utilisation and conservation strategies for plant resources in tropical montane agroecosystems: A case study from Xishuangbanna, SW China

On-farm conservation of plant diversity in traditional agroecosystems has been promoted, whereas indigenous knowledge of timber and NTFPs, either for direct consumption or for income generation, has decreased among forest dwellers because of modernisation, underestimation of their value, and lack of awareness. The internal heterogeneity of agroecosystems and links between agrobiodiversity and peasant livelihood strategies have been little explored. We studied utilisation and on-farm conservation strategies for both wild and cultivated plants consumed in tropical montane agroecosystems in a Hani nationality village, Daka, Xishuangbanna, SW China. We undertook a botanical survey in 99 plots together with annual questionnaire interviews with 60% of households from 1998 to 2005. For wild plants, the main uses are for ethnomedicine (53.4%), wood (13.5%) and as vegetables (6.8%). For cultivated plants, the main uses are for ethnomedicine (27.9%), as vegetables (19.2%) and as ornamentals (16.3%). Households often use low-quality timber species because of deforestation. The proportion of fuelwood collected from fallow land has declined continuously, whereas collection of rubber branches and Cassia siamea plantations have increased. The origin and changes in cultivated species in homegardens, swidden fields and rubber plantations were analysed. Indigenous knowledge of plant resources has decreased, with habitat loss and substitution for exotic species, which have a double-edged impact on biodiversity conservation. Management regulations and on-farm conservation strategies for native plant resources are discussed.