Comparative value of wild and domestic plants in home gardens of a South African rural village

Abstract

Rural inhabitants make considerable use of wild resources from communal areas around their settlements, as well as from arable and residential plots. These wild resources compete with the main crops planted in arable plots and home gardens, but play a significant economic and nutritional role in rural livelihoods. This paper reports upon a conservative financial evaluation of the wild plant resources harvested from home gardens and arable plots by inhabitants of rural village in the Bushbuckridge lowveld (South Africa), and examines their importance relative to other domesticated crops.