Tropentag, September 10 - 12, 2025, Bonn "Reconciling land system changes with planetary health"

Horticultural diversity upon a home gardening intervention in rural Kenya: An exploratory cluster-analysis

¹University of Bonn, Center for Development Research, Germany
²Heidelberg University, Heidelberg Institute of Global Health, Germany
³Kenya Medical Research Institute, Center for Global Health Research, Kenya
⁴Center for African Bio-Enterprenuership, Research, Kenya
⁵University of Bonn, Institute of Crop Science and Resource Conservation, Germany

Abstract

Introduction: Climate change impacts food security in rural Kenya, where livelihoods are closely tied to local food production systems. Home gardens are promoted as a climate change adaptation strategy due to their potential contributions to horticultural diversity and thus, dietary diversification and resilience. This study aimed at characterising horticultural diversity of farming households upon a home gardening intervention in Siaya county, Kenya.
Methods: From 300 households, socio-demographic information were collected through interviews and garden inventories were obtained over a period of 13 months. Horticultural diversity was operationalized using species richness, evenness, Shannon-Wiener index, and Simpson index. These indices were subjected to an exploratory cluster analysis, and households were categorised accordingly. We calculated the distributions of socio-demographic characteristics by cluster, and compared them by parametric tests.
Results: In this study population, most household heads were female (66%), the median age was 29 years, and 66% had elementary education. In their gardens, 22 horticultural crops species from 12 plant families were planted, which mostly were used for consumption. The gardens had mean species richness of 7 (range: 6, 8), Shannon-Wiener Index of 1.51 (range: 1.27, 1.67), Simpson Index of 0.73 (range: 0.64, 0.79) and Evenness Index of 0.79 (range: 0.65, 0.85). The cluster analysis yielded two distinct clusters: Cluster 1 was characterised by high evenness, lower species richness and diversity. Cluster 2 showed high species richness and diversity, yet low evenness.
Female-headed households (74%), farming as the main occupation (64%), and attendance to all training sessions (68%) were more frequent in Cluster 2 with higher diversity than in Cluster 1 with lower diversity (p<0.05).
Conclusion: In this study population, there are differences in horticultural diversity upon a home gardening intervention, which appear to be related to gender, experience, and compliance. This information is relevant to understand the role of horticultural diversity upon home gardening interventions as a means to improve dietary diversification and resilience.

Keywords: Adatation, climate change, Home gardening, Horticultural diversity, Resilience, Western Kenya

Contact Address: Erick Agure, University of Bonn, Center for Development Research, Genscherallee 3, 53113 Bonn, Germany, e-mail: erick.agureuni-bonn.de