ABSTRACT
For thousands of years, farmers have constantly modified their use and cultivation of biodiversity for food and livelihoods through learning, experiment and innovation. They have nurtured and managed a diversity of plants and animals – both wild and domesticated – and developed agrodiversity to harness various plants and animals for human benefit. In this process, types of agricultural land use have diverged. High-yielding varieties have often replaced the huge diversity of local varieties and genotypes. However, for several reasons, pockets of small-scale agriculture and land use have remained. Often, such land use is more appropriate to feed high densities of rural populations. One example is provided by the intensive home gardens, represented classically in northern Tanzania by the Chaga home gardens, also known as the Kibanja system, in Bukoba, northwestern Tanzania (Kaihura, 1999; Stocking et al, 2003).
