This study employed methodological tools of ethnobotany to better understand agrobiodiversity conservation practices used for yams (Dioscorea spp.) cultivated by farming communities in the municipality of Caapiranga (Amazonas State. For this work, a four-celled method, botanical inventory and collecting, a form, interviews and participant observation with farmers about the peculiarities of each species and varieties were used. The collected material was identified by an expert at the Herbarium of the Federal Institute of Education, Science and Technology of Amazonas (EAFM) and the Institute of Botany, IBt, São Paulo, and deposited in the Herbarium of Federal University of Amazonas (HUAM). For further identification of all collected species and varieties, the collected material was grown in a UFAM experimental field. Among the fifteen local varieties surveyed, ten are believed to belong to D. trifida and one to D. bulbifera. It was not possible to identify the four other taxa because they are no longer cultivated in gardens. It was found that the traditional farmers surveyed have great knowledge about the cultivated fields, as well as about cultivated local varieties, and that they have different forms of management and conservation that are fundamental to the maintenance of the agrobiodiversity of their gardens. The production systems of Caapiranga are true germplasm collections and the major local strategy for in situ/on farm conservation of genetic resources, and, therefore, should be maintained and encouraged.
landraces; propagation; variability
