Homegarden Research Papers - Academia.edu (original) (raw)

Homegardens are traditional farming systems which located within homesteads, continuously cultivated by and for households to ensure comprehensive household’s nutrient requirements as their main function. In this study, we investigated... more

Homegardens are traditional farming systems which located within homesteads,
continuously cultivated by and for households to ensure comprehensive household’s nutrient
requirements as their main function. In this study, we investigated plant diversity, homegarden
composition and the effects of distance from urban centers on plant diversity and composition
in homegardens. Field surveys were conducted between October 2010 and October 2011 in
three villages; Tham Lod, Mae La Na and Poong Yam, in Pang Mapha District, Mae Hong
Son Province. In each village, at least 10 households were randomly selected. The owner of
each homegarden was interviewed by a semi–structure method including vernacular name,
used parts and method. A total of 243 plants species were recorded in this study. Most of
them were used as foods (36.5%) and ornaments (24.9%). Additionally, the study has showed
slightly negative effects of distance from urban center on plant diversity but showed more
effects on plant similarities, particularly medicinal plants.

Disciplines and approaches concerned with people­environment relations have contributed to legitimate traditional ecological knowledge, nowadays endorsed in the international scientific­ policy agenda as an important driver for management... more

Disciplines and approaches concerned with people­environment relations have contributed to legitimate traditional ecological knowledge, nowadays endorsed in the international scientific­ policy agenda as an important driver for management and conservation of biological resources. However, there is still a need to further understand how people internalize worldviews, knowledge, and practices regarding environmental management. In this sense, traditional homegardens are a suitable scenery to unravel such processes. Grounded on Bourdieu´s´theory of practice´, this paper unveils homegardens as fields of social practice. The homegarden field is embedded within the household field, further influenced by the community field. The three of them make up the 'array of fields' where homegardening develops by means of social interactions, informing and informed by the habitus (schemes of perception, appreciation, and action, produced by particular social environments that shape agent's own sense of the world and his/her place in it). Both, inputs (e.g. land, plants, labor, and knowledge) and outputs (e.g. increased knowledge, homegarden produce, homegarden functions and derived benefits) are here approached as homegarden´s capitals. According to the theory of practice, such capitals are unequally distributed across agents, and it is such inequality that impulses them to generate, maintain, increase and/or transform homegarden capitals.