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Ethnobotanical Knowledge and Crop Diversity in Swidden Fields: A Study in a Native Amazonian Society

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Abstract

Crop diversity protects food consumption in poor households within developing nations. Here we estimate the association between crop diversity on swidden fields and ethnobotanical knowledge. We conducted research among 215 male household heads from a native Amazonian society. Using multivariate regressions, we found higher crop diversity among households that depend on agricultural production for household consumption. We also found a statistically significant and positive, but low, association between the ethnobotanical knowledge of the male household head and crop diversity. Doubling the stock of ethnobotanical knowledge of the male household head is associated with a 9% increase in the number of crops sown by a household. The association remained after we controlled for the household level of market exposure, but vanished after we controlled for the social capital of the male household head. Future research should compare the association between ethnobotanical knowledge and crop diversity across different agricultural systems (i.e., home gardens, fallow fields).

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Acknowledgement

Research was funded by grants from the program of Cultural Anthropology of the National Science Foundation (BCS-0134225 and BCS-0322380). We thank E. Conde, M. Aguilar, P. Pache, E. Tayo, J. Cari, M. Roca, D. Pache, and J. Pache, for help collecting the information and for logistical support. We thank R. Godoy for comments to previous versions of this article and ICRISAT-Patancheru for providing office facilities to Reyes-García. Preliminary results of this paper were presented at the 9th Conference of the International Society for Ecological Economics, Delhi (India), 15–18 December 2006.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. ICREA and Institut de Ciència i Tecnologia Ambientals, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, 08193, Bellatera, Barcelona, Spain

    Victoria Reyes-García

  2. Heller School for Social Policy and Management, Brandeis University, Waltham, MA, 02454-9110, USA

    Victoria Reyes-García

  3. Crop Physiology Laboratory, ICRISAT-Patancheru, 502 324, Andhra Pradesh, India

    Vincent Vadez

  4. Institut de Ciència i Tecnologia Ambientals, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, 08193, Bellaterra, Barcelona, Spain

    Neus Martí

  5. Centro de Investigación Boliviana y Desarrollo Socio Integral, San Borja, Beni, Bolivia

    Tomás Huanca

  6. Department of Anthropology, Northwestern University, Evanston, IL, USA

    William R. Leonard

  7. Department of Anthropology, University of Georgia, Athens, GA, 30602, USA

    Susan Tanner

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  1. Victoria Reyes-García
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Correspondence to Victoria Reyes-García.

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Reyes-García, V., Vadez, V., Martí, N. et al. Ethnobotanical Knowledge and Crop Diversity in Swidden Fields: A Study in a Native Amazonian Society. Hum Ecol 36, 569–580 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10745-008-9177-2

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