Sustainability of Home Gardens in the Community Tziscao, La Trinitaria, Chiapas, Mexico

Abstract

Home gardens are commonly considered to be healthy, efficient land use systems which have great potential to satisfy local needs and mitigate environmental degradation. The objective of this study was to analyze sustainability of home gardens in the community Tziscao in the municipality La Trinitaria, Chiapas, Mexico using a sample of 30 families. Researchers analyzed environmental, technological, economic and social aspects of the gardens, taking into account attributes of stability, efficiency, adaptability, productivity, profitability, self-administration and equity through the use of 20 indicators. Sustainability was evaluated using the Framework for Evaluating Natural Resource Management Systems Incorporating Sustainability Indicators (MESMIS according to its Spanish acronym) and multivariate statistics. With respect to the optimum researchers identified three levels of sustainability: low (32%), medium (43%) and high (57%). Stability was the only attribute with high values for the three groups of gardens (82%) while the remaining attributes at least in the low and medium sustainability groups showed values below 50%. Those indicators which most greatly influenced (p<0.05) sustainability of the gardens were net margin, innovative practices, tools, total beneficiaries and organization.