The comparative value of wild and domestic plants in home gardens of a south African rural village

Rural inhabitants make considerable use of wild resources from communal are as around their settlements, as well as from arable and residential plots. These wild resources compete with the main crops planted in arable plots an d home gardens, but play a significant economic and nutritional role in rur al livelihoods. This paper reports upon a conservative financial evaluation of the wild plant resources harvested from home gardens and arable plots b y inhabitants of rural village in the Bushbuckridge lowveld (South Africa), and examines their importance relative to other domesticated crops. On ave rage, each household made use of four to five species of wild plants growin g on their residential plot, whereas the mean number of crop plants was 3.4 . The total value of all plants was R1694 (US$ 269) per household per year, or approximately R4200 (US$ 667) per hectare of home garden per year. Wild plants represented 31% of the value of all plants grown on residential plo ts, relative to the 69% for domesticated crops (including fruit trees). App roximately 72% of the total value of all plant products was consumed by the household, and the remaining 28% was sold.