CHAPTER 8

DIVERSITY AND DYNAMICS

IN HOMEGARDENS OF SOUTHERN
ETHIOPIA

TESFAYE ABEBE1, K.F. WIERSUM2*, F. BONGERS3

AND F. STERCK3
1
Debub University, Awassa College of Agriculture, Ethiopia. 2Forest and Nature
Conservation Policy group, and 3Forest Ecology and Management group,
Wageningen University, The Netherlands; *E-mail: <freerk.wiersum@wur.nl>

Keywords: Adaptability, Species composition, Socioeconomic change, Sustainability.

Abstract. Most homegarden studies have focused on Asia, where homegardens constitute a
component of a spatially separated farming system consisting of cultivated fields with staple
food and/or commercial crops away from homes complemented by the homegardens with
supplementary crops such as fruits and vegetables surrounding residential houses. In the
highlands of East and Central Africa, another type of homegarden is found in the form of an
integrated farming system within itself and without additional cultivated fields. In these
‘integral’ homegardens, not only supplementary crops such as fruits and vegetables, but also
staple food crops and cash crops are grown. The enset (Enset ventricosum) and coffee (Coffea
arabica) homegarden system in southern Ethiopia is a typical example of such integral
homegardens. An assessment of 144 of these homegardens was made to gain insights into
their structure and vegetation composition and the relation between composition and
geographic and socioeconomic factors. Four specific garden types are identified, which vary
in commercial crop composition and diversity. These variations are related to farm size and
access to roads and markets, and illustrate the dynamic character of homegardens. Overall, the
diversity of the integral homegarden system seems to be somewhat lower than that of the
‘complementary’ homegarden systems in Asia, probably due to the inclusion of light
demanding staple food crops and a relatively large number of commercial crops. The dynamic
pathways of the integral homegarden systems because of commercialization appear similar to
reported trends in the ‘complementary’ homegarden systems in Asia. Although the
composition of the homegardens is influenced by socioeconomic dynamics, overall the
Ethiopian homegardens can be characterized as being ecologically and socioeconomically
sustainable. This can be attributed not only to species diversity but also to the presence of two
keystone species—coffee and enset.

123
B.M. Kumar and P.K.R. Nair (eds.), Tropical Homegardens: A Time-Tested Example of
Sustainable Agroforestry, 123–142.
© 2006 Springer. Printed in the Netherlands.
124 TESFAYE ABEBE ET AL.

1. INTRODUCTION
Homegardens have commonly been characterized as biodiverse and sustainable land
use systems (Soemarwoto, 1987; Torquebiau, 1992; Kumar and Nair, 2004).
Recently, it has been acknowledged that this does not mean that the structure and
composition of homegardens should be assumed as being stable (Kumar and Nair,
2004). From an ecological point of view, the production processes are not
necessarily negatively affected by changes in vegetation structure and composition,
if the nutrient cycling processes, hydrological conditions, and synergetic relations
are not compromised. From a social point of view, the concept of sustainability
incorporates the notion of adaptation to social change (Peyre et al., 2006). Similar to
any land use system, homegardens are faced with constant pressure of change
brought about by demographic, economic, technological, and social dynamics, and
they are constantly adapted to changing livelihoods. Several studies in Asia indicate
that with commercialization, often a gradual change from subsistence to commercial
crops occurs in homegardens, while the crop diversity decreases (Michon and Mary,
1994; Kumar and Nair, 2004; Peyre et al., 2006; Abdoellah et al., 2006).
Most homegardens studies are focused on gardens that constitute a component of
a spatially separated farming system consisting of cultivated fields away from
homes complemented by the homegardens surrounding residential houses. In such
multi-locational farming systems, homegarden production is mostly supplementary
to the staple food production and mainly focuses on vegetables, fruits, and
condiments (Wiersum, 2006; Soemarwoto, 1987; Hoogerbrugge and Fresco, 1993).
The notion of tropical homegardens as components of integrated farming systems,
which also include cultivated fields for staple food production, prevails in much of
the homegarden literature. These ‘complementary’ homegardens typically consist of
small (0.01 to 1 ha) plots around houses with a more or less randomly organized
cropping pattern. A part of the garden may be devoted to ornamentals or tree crops.
As these homegardens complement other components of the overall farming system,
crop diversity and homegarden dynamics are influenced by the nature and
characteristics of the other components of the overall farming system (Stoler, 1978;
Karyono, 1990). However, in the highlands of East and Central Africa, a somewhat
different type of homegardens exists in the form of an integrated farming system
within itself without additional cultivated fields (Tesfaye Abebe, 2005). These
‘integral’ homegardens consist of medium-scale (0.4 to ~3 ha) multipurpose farm
fields around homes that form the principal means of livelihood for the households.
In these gardens, not only supplementary crops such as vegetables, fruits,
condiments, and/or medicinal crops, but also staple food crops and cash crops are
cultivated. The motivating factor for this multiplicity of species is that farmers have
no or very little additional land devoted to specialized types of production, for
instance cereals. Consequently, these homegardens function as a total rather than a
partial farming system. Most of the homegardens in the highlands of East Africa
belong to this category (Fernandes et al., 1984; Okigbo, 1990; Oduol and Aluma,
1990; Rugalema et al., 1994; Tesfaye Abebe, 2005). They have been much less
intensively studied than the ‘complementary’ homegardens of Asia. An interesting
question is whether the diversity and dynamics as observed in the ‘complementary’