Abstract:
Homegarden agroforestry system mostly constitutes complex multi-strata than other
agroforestry systems. The aim of this study was to assess the structure, composition and
diversity of plant species growing in homegarden agroforestry system and to evaluate the
economic contributions of homegardens to households in Bulen district, North-West
Ethiopia. The study was conducted in five kebeles of the Woreda, which were randomly
selected. Systematic random sampling procedure was employed to select households from
each kebeles. Thus, 138 households from each site were selected proportionally. The
most dominant component of homegarden agroforestry in the study area were woody
plants and cereal shrubs. In this study a total of 22 plant species belonging to 15 families
were recorded in sampled homegardens in which about 4-8 different species of plants per
quadrant were recorded. A higher Shannon diversity index of plant species in the study
area were (H'=2.44) while the lower Shannon diversity index were (H'=2.21). The
homegarden agroforestry system had complex structure both vertically and horizontally,
which in turn plays a great role for economical and ecological service to the households.
The vertical distribution of species across quadrat decreases with increa sing distance
from the house of the farm. Which means the frequency of species in quadrat one was
greater than the other three quadrats. The species richness of the homegarden
agroforestry was decreased with increasing the height of species or when we go from
quadrat one to quadrat four. There are three economic source of homegarden
agroforestry in the study area for the households; 55% from crop production, 39% from
woody plant species and 6% from livestock production.
