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In many traditionally managed agroecosystems, populations of domesticated plants maintain high levels of genetic diversity. The threat of erosion of this diversity is a current conservation concern, motivating studies of how diversity can be maintained by in situ conservation measures. Precisely how the biological traits of plants and the cultural practices of farmers act on fundamental evolutionary forces – drift, migration, selection, and mutation – to create and maintain crop plant diversity has been little investigated in detail. We develop some elements of the framework required for studying such biocultural interactions, focusing on one component of management: farmers' decisions on what to plant, and the structure of germplasm exchange among farmers. We illustrate the approach with a study of Duupa farmers in northern Cameroon. Our results suggest that sorghum populations managed by the Duupa function …