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Home Garden Production and Energetic Sustainability in Calakmul, Campeche, Mexico

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Abstract

Energy flows were studied for the 2002–2003 agricultural cycle in four households for which agriculture is part of a diversified survival strategy and four that practice agriculture as a business. Home garden inputs and outputs were measured monthly. Quantified inputs were: household labour, household agro-system production, and purchased external renewable and non-renewable energy. Outputs measured were: sales, family and animal foods. While both strategies had similar indicators in biomass and energy production, vegetable richness, and soil quality, household garden function and sustainability differed between subsistence and commercial householders. Subsistence gardens complemented family diet and contributed to household system resiliency. They relied heavily on renewable energy sources from within their agro-system. Gardens in commercial households reduced fruit tree area and increased animal husbandry for the market. They depended more on purchased non-renewable energy sources and were less sustainable and much less energy efficient than traditional gardens.

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Notes

  1. Municipio: the smallest official administrative and territorial unit in Mexico.

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Acknowledgments

The authors wish to thank the owners of the home gardens analyzed here. Without their patience and year round cooperation this work would have been impossible. We also would like to acknowledge the work and support received from the Ecological Anthropology Research group in ECOSUR-Campeche who played key roles during fieldwork and data management at the office in ECOSUR. Financial support for this research was obtained from the Southern Yucatán Peninsular Region (SYPR) project involving Clark University, University of Virginia, El Colegio de la Frontera Sur, and Harvard University. Its principal sponsors have been NASA-LCLUC (Land Cover and Land Use Change) program (NAG5-6046 and NAG5-11134), Center for Integrated Studies of the Human Dimensions of Global Environmental Change, Carnegie Mellon University (NSF SBR 95-21914), and NSF-Biocomplexity (BCS-0410016). Finally the first author was supported during research by a Ph. D. grant from El Consejo Nacional Ciencia y Tecnología (CONACYT), México (Num. 147752).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Departamento de Población y Ambiente, El Colegio de la Frontera Sur (ECOSUR), Calle 10 No. 264 x 61 Col. Centro, Campeche, Campeche, 24000, México

    José A. Alayón-Gamboa & Francisco D. Gurri-García

  2. División de Población y Ambiente, El Colegio de la Frontera Sur (ECOSUR), Calle 10 No. 264 x 61 Col. Centro, Campeche, Campeche, 24000, México

    José A. Alayón-Gamboa

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  1. José A. Alayón-Gamboa
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Correspondence to José A. Alayón-Gamboa.

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Alayón-Gamboa, J.A., Gurri-García, F.D. Home Garden Production and Energetic Sustainability in Calakmul, Campeche, Mexico. Hum Ecol 36, 395–407 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10745-007-9151-4

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