Woody Plant Inventory and Diversity in Traditional Agroforestry of Selected Peasant Association of South Gonder Zone, North West Ethiopia

Abstract

The study is aimed to assess the traditional agroforestry practice and tree composition in six selected peasant association of South Gonder Zone, Northern Ethiopia. In addition, variation of woody plant species on major niches of agroforestry was also assessed. Peasant association were selected based agro ecology, two peasant associations from Dega agro ecology, two peasant associations from Woinadega agro ecology and two peasant associations from Kolla agroecology were selected. Accordingly, 96 household heads were selected randomly from the peasant association for the study. The study was also supported by key informant interview to triangulate the data. Woody species inventory was conducted on the farmlands of the 96 selected farmers and quadrant was also laid on major agroforestry niches home garden, crop land and grazing land which were analyzed using Shannon diversity index to compare their variation.The results of this study have shown that home gardens, farm boundary, crop land, grazing lands and degraded lands are the common traditional agroforestry practices in the study area. On home garden the common tree species are Acacia nilotica,Capparis tomentosa, Persea Americana and Rhamnus prinoides while on crop land the common tree species are Cordia Africana Croton macrostachyus Adansonia digitata and Syzygium guineense. Similarly, the common trees species on boundary are Eucalyptus spp, Rosa abyssinica, Carissa spinarum and Sesbaina sesban while the common tree species on degraded land are Eucalyptus spp, Justicia schimperiana, Vernonia amygdalina and Rosa abyssinica. And the common tree species on trees on grazing land are Ficus vasta, Ficus sur, Albizia gummifera and Acacia nilotica. In comparison of major agroforestry niche, grazing land is more diversified followed by crop land and grazing land as their mean Shannon diversity index value is 1.52, 1.44 and 1.24 respectively. The study recommends that conservation of the existing indigenous trees and the importance of each potential tree species for soil fertility improvement, animal feed, biological soil conservation, and ecological importance should be studied further.

Keywords: agroforestry practice, woody species inventory and diversity