PLANT SPECIES DIVERSITY IN HOMEGARDEN AGROFORESTRY AND IT’S CONTRIBUTION TO FOOD SECURITY IN MELKA BELLO DISTRICT OF EAST HARARGHE ZONE, ETHIOPIA

Abstract

Homegarden agroforestry support biodiversity and a considerable contribution for rural households’ food security. Yet, the diversity of plant species and it’s contribution to food security was insufficiently understood and documented in Melka Bello District. Therefore, the study aims to assess the diversity of plant species in homegarden agroforestry and its contribution to food security in Melka Bello District of East Hararghe Zone, Ethiopia. Sixteen kebeles were purposively selected based on the presence of homegarden agroforestry and three of them were randomly selected, from which 120 households were selected for this study. All trees, shrubs and herbaceous plants were counted and recorded in each of 10mx10m, 5m x 5m and 1m x 1m quadrats, respectively. The household survey was involved questionnaire based respondent and key informant interview. The study was carried out from October 24, 2020 and May 25, 2021. The recorded Data was organized and analyzed by Statistical Package for Social Sciences(SPSS) version 20 and Microsoft Office Excel 2010, using descriptive statistic such as mean, percentage and frequency. A total of 3411 individual number of plants, belonging to 82 species and 45 families constituting 34% trees, 33% shrubs and 33% herbs species were recorded in homegarden of the study area. The mean richness of woody species was significantly different (P < 0.05) only among Mulisa Haka and Dageya Belo kebeles. While, the mean abundance indicated significant difference in between Mulisa Haka and the other two (Dageya Belo and Tokuma Jalela) kebeles. There was significant mean difference in both richness and abundance of herbaceous species (P < 0.05) among Mulisa Haka and the other two (Dageya Belo and Tokuma Jalela) study Kebeles. The highest value of richness (7.04) and abundance (15.7) of woody species were recorded both in Dageya Belo kebele and highest value of richness (5.8) and abundance (21.7) of herbaceous species were recorded in Tokuma Jalela and Dageya Belo kebeles respectively. There was significant difference in the mean value of Shannon and Simpson diversity index (P < 0.05) of woody plant species among Mulisa Haka and Dageya Belo Kebeles. The highest mean Shannon diversity index of woody species (1.72) was recorded in Dageya Belo followed by Tokuma Jalela (1.6) and lowest (1.42) was in Mulisa Haka site. The overall mean Shannon, Simpson and Evenness index of herbaceous plant species was found to be 1.25, 0.95 and 0.89 respectively. The result of this study shows significant mean difference of Shannon and Simpson diversity index (P<0.05) only among Mulisa Haka and the other two Kebeles. The total mean income of 6,511.4,1627.9, 920 and 1045.4 ETB were obtained from field farm,HG farm, off-farm and non-farm respectively. Accordingly, about 51.6% of daily food consumption from field (41.3%) and HG (10.3%) farm were as the left 35.5% and 13% of food from purchased by their different income sources and food aid/PSNP respectively. About 60% of respondents were food insecure and 40% of them were food secure. Homegarden agroforestry is important land use system in plant species diversity and contributes in food security improvement and thus, should be encouraged.