Photo：Jorn Breiholz

What are home gardens？

Home gardens are agro-ecosystems located close to the area that serves as a permanent or temporary residence. Within a very small area one can find a combination of trees，shrubs，vegetables，root crops，grasses and herbs that provide food，spices，medicines and construction materials. Domestic animals are often integrated into the system too.

The produce from these gardens not only secures food and income；it will often have an important cultural significance too. For example，indigenous communities in the Amazon Basin use the red seeds of Bixa orellana as a body paint at traditional festivities，or the psychoactive Brugmansia sp.，or Angels’ trumpet，for shamanistic rituals.

Home gardens undergo a constant development process，since the composition and use of crops changes according to the circumstances and needs of the gardeners. Material acquired by means of barter will be tried out，or efforts will be made to domesticate wild plants. Conserving horticultural crops in cultivation （in situ）-as opposed to conserving them in gene banks （ex situ）-has the advantage that varieties are constantly continuing to develop. This means that new utility values of plants may emerge as a result of evolutionary adaptation.