Published in Scientific Papers. Series "Management, Economic Engineering in Agriculture and rural development", Vol. 24 ISSUE 2
Written by Maria-Mihaela ANTOFIE, Camelia SAND-SAVA, Teodor VINTILA

One of the future challengesin ensuring food securityis accessing a broader diversity of plant genetic resources for food and agriculture (PGRFA). Today, heterogenous agricultural lands are considered hotspots for biodiversity, and they also exist in the hilly mountain areas of Romania’s Carpathians. The scope of this article is to describe Saxon traditional home-gardens related to the land use of households and cultivated crop species in Moșna commune, Sibiu County, Romania. The survey was conducted with the support of authorities and local stakeholders. The results of this study revealed that the maintenance of crop species structure and land use in traditional households has been ongoing for more than two centuries. Today, these home gardens cover 26% of the total area of a household and are cultivated mainly with vegetables. Generally, a household should have a surface area ranging between 5,000 and ,500 m2. The first local council decision in Romania in 20 9 supporting the recognition of 20 landraces, the Saxon church garden, and 5 traditional home gardens as heritage values was officially adopted. Among the oldest and most popular landraces cultivated in home gardens, we identified Moșna cabbage, garlic, celery, dill, and Saxon raspberry. The results of our study also support the idea that these traditional households are functional agro-ecosystems with a positive impact on food security for the future and generally on biodiversity conservation.

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