Agrobiodiversity of homegardens in a commercial sugarcane cultivation land matrix in Uganda
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Date
2016
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
International Journal of Biodiversity Science, Ecosystem Services & Management
Abstract
ABSTRACT
Understanding biodiversity in homegardens embedded in landscapes dominated by commercial
monoculture agriculture is critical for sustainable management of agrobiodiversity
and meeting rural households’ needs in the face of global changes. We assessed agrobiodiversity
in the 120 homegardens and its contribution to rural household livelihood strategies
within a commercial monoculture sugarcane cultivation land matrix in eastern Uganda. We
recorded a total of 68 plant species from 46 genera representing 27 families. Species richness
spanned 6 to 19 species, and α-diversity (H’) ranged from 0.6 to 2.3; with 86.67% of the
homegardens having H’ >1. Species composition differed significantly (global RANOSIM = 0.153,
p < 0.001) among the villages. The most important and commonly maintained plants were
those that provided food, fuelwood and money income and included Zea mays L., Manihot
esculenta, Phaesolus spp., Coffea sp., Musa spp., Ipomea batatus and Artocarpus heterophyllus.
Most of the crops cited as useful by households were also frequent and visible in many of the
homegardens. Although homegardens still hold some valuable plants, there is also loss of
important plants from the agricultural system including cowpeas, soya beans, bambara
groundnuts, finger millet, cotton, aerial yams and oysternut essential for sustaining household
livelihoods. This loss, precipitated by increased land-use/cover change to commercial
sugarcane plantations threatens agrobiodiversity conservation and the benefits households
derive from homegardens. Our findings underline the importance of homegardens in the
conservation of indigenous agrobiodiversity, and indicate that with the continued expansion
of commercial sugarcane cultivation this opportunity may be lost.
Description
Keywords
ANalysis Of SIMilarity (ANOSIM), Biodiversity, Climate change, Commercial agriculture, Food security, Homegardens
Citation
Edward N. Mwavu, Esther Ariango, Paul Ssegawa, Vettes N. Kalema, Fred Bateganya, Daniel Waiswa & Patrick Byakagaba (2016) Agrobiodiversity of homegardens in a commercial sugarcane cultivation land matrix in Uganda, International Journal of Biodiversity Science, Ecosystem Services & Management, 12:3, 191-201, DOI: 10.1080/21513732.2016.1177595