The participation of women in the family gardens of Tixmucuy, Campeche, play a decisive role in improving food security, ensuring that the household has an adequate supply of plant and animal food (Wodajo et al., 2020). In general, housewives average 45.3 years, the family are usually comprised of 3.9 members on average, and they manage a plot with an average extension of 1,156.04 m2. These data are consistent with those suggested by Poot-Pool, van der Wal, Flores-Guido, Pat-Fernández, & Esparza-Olguín, (2012), who financially stratify the Mayan peasant families of Pomuch, Campeche, Mexico and their influence on family orchards, presented an average area of 1,262 m2 in the orchards of poor and wealthy families. In this same sense Salazar-Barrientos, Magaña-Magaña, & Latournerie-Moreno (2015) reported that family transfers present in the community of Tixkokob, Yucatan, Mexico had an extension of 1,201 m2 and provided a part of the food required by families. In addition, they emphasize that these agroecosystems promote the subsistence of the family nuclei, through the integration of families. Within the family strategies for the maintenance of the orchard, roles have been defined for each member. Chablé Pascual et al. (2015) mention that in Chontalpa, Tabasco, Mexico planting, cleaning and irrigation activities are carried out by women, while men have temporary participation in maintenance activities. In this region, family plots have an extension of 4, 616.11 m2 and an average establishment of 11.6 to 31.2 years, the largest plots having been passed from generation to generation. The people in charge of garden care are middle-aged women and older men, while the young people of the family study and working-age men have extra-farm jobs, this phenomenon was already been observed by Pulido-Salas et al. (2017). Likewise, in Cárdenas, Tabasco, México, Bautista-García, Sol-Sánchez, Velázquez-Martínez, & Llanderal-Ocampo, (2017) Bautista-García, Sol-Sánchez, Velázquez-Martínez, & Llanderal-Ocampo, (2017) comment that family orchards are managed by older relatives, who carryout planting, irrigation, pruning, cleaning and harvesting activities. The orchards of José María Morelos, Quintana Roo, Mexico, are established on property with private and ejidal land tenure, and have an extension ranging from 400 to 2,700 m2 and 25 years of establishment and use. This suggests that in the rural towns of Campeche there is less access to areas for the implementation of family plots, so the arrangement of the elements is carried out based on short- and long-term planning that allows efficient use of available resources.
In relation to plant diversity, 470 species and nine uses were reported, where plants are mainly used as ornamentals and food for humans. In the plots of José María Morelos, Quintana Roo, Mexico, fewer plant species and botanical families were found, 72 and 40 respectively. These species were used in 10 different forms: food, ceremonial, condiment, construction, fodding, medicinal, sale, shadow, ornate and utensil making. 58.3% of plant species are used as food, highlighting this as the main function of the solars studied, followed by medicinal use with 16.6% (Pulido-Salas et al., 2017). In Chemblas and Laureles, Campeche, México, a similar number of species and families are reported with 86 and 41, respectively. The remaining uses conferred on plant species coincide with those found in this study, the main being: food and ornamental with 42 and 34%. However, the less common uses differ with those observed in this study as magical-religious, tutor of another plant species, fishing art, pest control and protection (Góngora-Chin et al., 2016). On the other hand, Chablé Pascual et al., 2015) reported a diversity of plant species greater than that found in this study when they analyzed the family plots of Chontalpa in Tabasco, Mexico, in which they found 330 plant species where it was nine categories of use were observed, and the main ones were ornamental, medicinal and for 138, 115 and 98 species, respectively. In the same study, the family plots of Cárdenas, Tabasco, México Bautista-García et al. (2017) recorded 1, 968 plants of 203 species and 69 different botanical families, but coincided with this study as the botanical families Fabaceae and Rutaceae being the most abundant with the main ornamental uses and as food.
The diversity index in the orchards of Tixmucuy, Campeche was of H’= 3.436 on average; in this sense Salazar-Barrientos et al. (2015) reported that the Tixkokob solars, Yucatán, México, present the same trend with a diversity index of H’=4.262, The main use of these species is ornamental followed by consumption. The botanical family Rutaceae with the species stands out: Citrus aurantium L. (35.7%), Citrus sinensis Osbeck (35%), Citrus aurantifolia Swingle (25.8%), Citrus limonia Osbeck (18.2%) and Citrus paradisi Max (18.2%). The above also matches reported by Poot-Pool et al. (2012) in family plots of the community of Pomuch, Campeche, Mexico, where they observed that poor families include native plant species in their plots for uses such as fodder, medicine, firewood, construction wood and carpentry whereas wealthy families included fruit trees and ornamental plants. Comparing with the results of this study it can be assumed that the G1 plots belong to rich families, while the solars of the G2 belong to poor families. This behavior can be explained according to Bautista-García et al. (2017), where rich families attach greater economic importance to the species they have on the plots and use them for the sale of ornamental and fruit plants.
In the animal component, we found three species of birds, the main being Gallus domesticus L. The largest number of domestic animal species in the G1 was due to access to government programmes that subsidize packages of birds for breeding on family plots (Poot-Pool et al., 2012); These programmes function as incentives to improve food security in rural families by increasing the production of animal food and improving the nutritional level of family members (Wodajo et al., 2020).
The poultry was mainly used for the production of food and food-sale (Gutiérrez-Triay et al., 2007). Domestic birds represent 76% of the animal species present in the family plots of seven municipalities of Campeche, Mexico (Flota-Bañuelos et al., 2016), 75% in Chemblas and The Los Laureles, Campeche, México (Góngora-Chin et al., 2016) and 98.3% en Tetiz Yucatán, México (Salazar-Barrientos et al., 2015), These figures make it clear that the fundamental role of these animal species is obtaining protein food products (meat and egg), as well as economic income from the sale of surpluses in the family plots of the study region (Candelaria-Martínez, Ramírez-Mella, Flota-Bañuelos, & Dorantes-Jiménez, 2016). The results of this study differ with what is reported for family plots of Chontalpa and Cardenas, Tabasco, where a greater number of animal species were recorded: Ovis aries, Suss crofa, Gallus, Anas eranser, Meleagris gallipavo, all of them with food use (Bautista-García et al., 2017; Chablé Pascual et al., 2015; Góngora-Chin et al., 2016), the species Anas boschas and Bos indicus were only reported for Chontalpa, and are bred for consumption by the family and sale (Chablé Pascual et al., 2015). Therefore, animals are an important complementary component in family plots and their use is linked to the provision of food to the family (Salazar-Barrientos et al., 2015). With regard to wildlife on the plots of the state of Campeche, Mexico, it is common for rural families to maintain wildlife species such as Dendrocygna autumnalis, Agouti paca, Pecari tajacu, Ctenosaura pectinata in corrals designed for this purpose within the space occupied by family plots and are mainly used as mascot and food (Ramírez-Mella, Candelaria-Martínez, Dorantes-Jiménez, Tarango-Arámbula, & Flota-Bañuelos, 2016). Wild species such as Amazona albifrons, Columba sp, Aratinga sp., with ornamental use and Agouti paca as a pet in the Chontalpa, Tabasco, México (Chablé Pascual et al., 2015), Leptotila verreauxi, Columba livia, Zenaida asiática and Melopsittacus undulatus as food and pet, in the town of Los Laureles and Chemblas, Campeche, México, and Poicephalus sp., as ornate in Cárdenas, Tabasco, México (Bautista-García et al., 2017).
In the vertical structure of the plots, the strata, arboreal, shrub and herbaceous were differentiated. In the tree stratum, there were heights of 17 m. These species coincide with those found in the family plots of José María Morelos, Quintana Roo, México (Pulido-Salas et al., 2017) and the Chontalpa, Tabasco, México, except for the species Cordia alliodora that reaches up to 19 m (Chablé Pascual et al., 2015). The shrub stratum were present different species of citrus, with average heights of 4 m. These heights are presented in the same way for the plots of Chontalpa, Tabasco, México (Chablé Pascual et al., 2015), the species are similar, excluding Coffea arabica and Theobroma cacao, the latter is part of the sociocultural environment of the state. Finally, the eastern herbaceous stratum, mainly the species of medicinal use (Ruta chalepensis, Lippia graveolens and Catharanthus roseus, among other) and edibles (Cucurbita moschata and Ipomea batatas) (Chablé Pascual et al., 2015), are found, usually located in the surrounding part or near the house (Salazar-Barrientos et al., 2015).
In the horizontal structure of the orchards is defined by the management that is established within this space, the logic of facilitating the work that is carried out on the plot predominates. Likewise, what was observed in this study coincides with what was reported by Pulido-Salas et al. (2017) who detected that the trees were arranged near the house, to provide shade, and differ with what was reported by Chablé Pascual et al. (2015) who report for the family plots of the Chontalpa a total linkage of the arrangement of the components of this space with the presence of cocoa and its dependence on envelope by a higher tree stratum.