Estimate of potential economic income from home gardens in Palenque, Chiapas, Mexico.

Abstract

The productive condition of the home gardens in the area does not contribute to reducing the costs of living of the families neither supply the products that the families require, because the sizes of the home gardens offer little productive guarantee. Therefore, this work aimed to estimate the economic and productive potential of family gardens in relation to the diversity of useful plants species present in the area.  A semi-structured interview was applied to 43 heads of families. Depending on the size, the orchards were grouped as small, medium and large orchards. The monthly family consumption of fruit and vegetable products and their methods of obtaining were identified and the economic contribution generated by the implementation of a family vegetable home garden of 132 m² in the Ejido Nueva Esperanza section first, Palenque Chiapas, was estimated. The production of each home garden and the economic contribution generated to the family were estimated; the income generated in the model vegetable garden was also estimated. It is concluded that families allocate up to 68% of their monthly income for the acquisition of consumer fruit and vegetable products, but working a garden of 132 m² with short-cycle vegetables could obtain savings of up to 74%.