Explaining edible plant diversity in home gardens of the Kyrgyz Republic, Central Asia

Little is known about the role of home gardens in the conservation of agrobiodiversity in Kyrgyzstan, but they could be important given the number of different crop relatives, especially fruit tree crops, that grow wild providing residents with the opportunity to introduce these species into their gardens. I surveyed edible plant species diversity by using interviews, structured survey instruments, and full agroecosystem mapping. Temperate home gardens in Kyrgyzstan are diverse with an average of 24 edible plant species per home garden and plant material received from others (relatives and neighbors) and number of additional plots owned were the best predictors of the diversity status of cultivated plants. Gender and ethnicity of the gardener matters, but the relationship of explanatory variables to mapped fruit species diversity important to explaining home garden diversity in other parts of the world do not apply or have inverted relationships in the Kyrgyz context.