Does Crop Diversification Pay Off? An Empirical Study in Home Gardens of the Iberian Peninsula

Abstract

Because of its potential role in providing ecosystem services and private benefits (food security), the concern about the loss of agrobiodiversity has grown. We explore the links between agrobiodiversity and farm financial benefits in small-scale agroecosystems. We measured crop diversity in a subsistence-oriented agricultural production system: home gardens (n = 250) in the Iberian Peninsula. We calculated the imputed market value of home gardens' edible crops and estimated the association between agrobiodiversity and home gardens' gross financial value. Temperate home gardens harbor levels of agrobiodiversity comparable to those of tropical home gardens. Data suggest that an increase in crop diversity is associated with an increase in the gross financial value generated by home gardens. Our findings suggest that in non-commercially oriented agricultural systems, there is a positive link between agrobiodiversity and financial benefits, highlighting the contribution of agrobiodiversity to the provision of private benefits.

Keywords:

• agrobiodiversity
• agroecosystems
• ecosystem services
• kitchen garden
• Spain

Acknowledgments

Research was funded by the Programa de Ciencias Sociales y Humanidades del Ministerio de Educación y Ciencia (Spain) (SEJ2007-60873/SOCI). We thank all the gardeners who collaborated in the project. We also thank G. Ochoa and L. Vaqué-Núñez for help collecting the data, M. Chavez for help in data management, and J. Tardío and U. Pascual for bibliographic leads. Thanks also go to Resilient Dry land Systems, ICRISAT-Patancheru, for providing office facilities to Reyes-García.

Notes

Note. Regressions include clustering by subject and dummy variables for areas and a constant (not shown). Standard errors in parentheses. Asterisks *, **, and *** indicate significant at ≤10%, ≤5%, and ≤1%, respectively.

Note. Regressions include clustering by subject and dummy variables for areas and a constant (not shown). Asterisks *, **, and *** indicate significant at ≤10%, ≤5%, and ≤1%, respectively.