Abstract

AMARAL, Cleomara Nunes do  and  GUARIM NETO, Germano. Home gardens as conservation and food cultivation spaces: a case study in the town of Rosario Oeste (Mato Grosso, Brazil). Bol. Mus. Para. Emilio Goeldi Cienc. Hum. [online]. 2008, vol.3, n.3, pp.329-341. ISSN 1981-8122.

Home gardens are one of the oldest forms of land management. These systems consist of a combination of trees, shrubs and herbs, sometimes associated with small domestic animals, growing next to residences. To identify the plant species used as food that constitute the home gardens in the town of Rosário Oeste, Mato Grosso State, Brazil, we used qualitative and quantitative methodologies suggested by other ethnobotanical studies. We collected ethnobotanical data by visiting homes and applying the "snow-ball" technique. We identified 94 plant species used as food by the local families. Even though traditional agricultural systems such as home gardens play important ecological roles and conserve high plant species diversity while maintaining these species' genetic variability, these subsistence systems are becoming disarticulated and are losing space to agroindustry and other commercial activities that are of ever increasing economic importance in rural areas.

Keywords : Home gardens; Food plants; Traditional agricultural systems; Conservation; Ethnobotany.

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