Compositions, practices and constraints of home garden: the case of Bahir Dar city, Ethiopia

Abstract

Bahir Dar city has suitable agro-ecologies for production of different types of fruits and vegetables, but unfortunately the area allotted for these crops, and their production and productivity are very low. There is a dearth of research and documentation on household gardens in the town. The present study attempted to assess the home garden species diversity, composition, challenges and to keep the documentation about home gardening as special references for horticultural crops in Bahir Dar city. The research was carried out in seven selected sub-cities of Bahir Dar between September and June 2020. Semi-structured questioners and interviews, as well as home garden visits, were used to collect data. 302 families were chosen based on the availability of kitchen gardening space and where kitchen gardening is already done. According to the findings of this study, home gardens in Bahir Dar city had a high species diversity and a diverse composition (especially horticultural crops) such as mango, avocado, papaya, head cabbage, tomato, and lettuce. Furthermore, as a source of additional food, home gardens significantly benefit both the gardener and society as well as income, and environmental improvement of the community. However, insufficient agricultural support encourages the use of pesticides, and small garden sizes reduce diversity of species and production. If interested organizations and scholars give these issues some thought, the hotspot will continue to sustainably support home gardening and its current biodiversity in the future.

Public Interest Statement

Home gardens are repositories of biocultural assets of communities, the hub of plant based resources and the microcosms of agro biodiversity hotspots. But, as population pressure increases over time in the area, expansion of agricultural land (by deforestation), degradation of land and the demand for food will also increase. Thus, in the long run, people in the cities may be limited to their home garden for food supply with little other supplements. Therefore, assessing and documenting current home garden systems in the city along with local people ethnobotanical knowledge of the local people about them with a special reference to horticultural crops is very important.

Keywords:

• Bahir Dar city
• challenges
• ethno botanical
• horticulture
• kitchen garden

Reviewing Editor:

• M. Luisa Escudero-Gilete, Universidad de Sevilla, Spain

Subjects:

• Horticulture; Agriculture and Food; Plant Ecology; Nutrition

Acknowledgements

We would like to acknowledge Bahir Dar University for financial support and the local people for providing necessary data.

Authors’ contributions

All authors contribute equally on this study.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Data availability statement

The data used to support the findings of this study are included in the article.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Tadele Yeshiwas

Tadele Yeshiwas, MSc, is a full time lecturer in horticultural courses in department of horticulture, College of Agriculture and Environmental Sciences, Bahir Dar University, Ethiopia. He is actively involved in community based services, teaching and conducting a research that can answer/solve now a day’s facing farmer’s problem in horticultural crop production. His key research interest is soil fertility, post harvest and agronomic management for improvement of production and productivity of horticultural crops.

Melkamu Alemayehu

Melkamu Alemayehu, PhD, is an associate professor in the field of Horticulture, especially in vegetable production and Head of the Horticulture Research Group in College of Agriculture and Environmental Sciences, Bahir Dar University, Ethiopia. His key research interest is soil fertility management for improvement of production and productivity of horticultural crops.

Fenta Assefa

Fenta Assefa is a full time lecturer in Department of Plant Sciences, College of Agriculture and Environmental Sciences, University of Gondar, Ethiopia. He had published nine (9) articles in sciences indexed journal and review two manuscripts one in cogent food and agriculture and another in Elsevier as a reviewer till now. Currently, he is involved in teaching major courses, community based services and conducting research in plant sciences. Basically his research interest focuses on agronomy, plant entomology and pathology.

Selamawit Zelalem

Selamawit Zelalem, MSc, is a full time lecturer in horticultural courses in department of horticulture, College of Agriculture and Environmental Sciences, Bahir Dar University, Ethiopia. She is actively involved in community based services, teaching and conducting a research that can answer/solve now a day’s facing farmer’s problem in horticultural crop production. Her key research interest is soil fertility, post harvest and agronomic management for improvement of production and productivity of horticultural crops.