STRUCTURE, COMPOSITION AND DIVERSITY OF PLANT SPECIES IN HOMEGARDENS AND EVALUATION OF THE ECONOMIC CONTRIBUTION TO HOUSEHOLDS, IN BULEN WOREDA, BENISHANGUL GUMUZ REGION, NORTH-WEST ETHIOPIA

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.