Ethnobotanical Study of Homegarden Plants in Bibugn District, East Gojjam Zone Amhara Region, Ethiopia
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Date
2024-06
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Addis Ababa University
Abstract
An ethnobotanical study was carried out in Bibugn district, East Gojjam Zone of Amhara region in Ethiopia, with the goal of conducting an ethnobotanical investigation on homegarden plant diversity, and their use value for local communities in relation to management practices. A stratified random sampling technique was employed to select seven Kebeles, and 366 households were selected proportionally by the Cochran formula. To collect homegarden plant data, 10 m x 10 m plots were laid in 42 representatives randomly selected homegardens and each homegarden’s species and its total individuals were recorded. Ethnobotanical information was gathered by conducting homegarden observation, market survey, group discussions, and semi-structured interviews. In the data analysis, Microsoft Excel 2019 was used to compute frequency, density, simple preferences ranking, and direct matrix ranking. Furthermore, the Shannon-Weiner diversity index and Sorenson's index of similarity were computed to compute the diversity and similarity of homegarden plant species. The result indicated that 325 (88.79%) of the households were practicing home gardening activities. A total of 110 plant species were identified and documented, and distributed into 98 genera and 48 families. In terms of growth habits, the homegarden plants in the study area, 41 (37%) were herbs, 39 (36%) were shrubs, 23 (21%) were trees and 7 (6%) were climbers. Rhamnus prinoides had the highest frequency (92.86%), followed by Solanum tuberosum (80.95%) in the study area. Eucalyptus globulus had the highest density of the 110 plant species identified in the study area, followed by Rhamnus prinoides, and Solanum tuberosum. Diversity indices, with the highest value of (H'= 3.64) for Woina Dega, followed by Kolla. In the study area, there were approximately 14 major use reports of plants. 56 (18%) of the plants that occurred in the homegardens with multiple uses took the top position followed by 43 (14%) live fence plants and 41(13%) firewood plants among others. Therefore, it can be concluded that homegardens in the study area contain diverse types of plants and a lot of supply to the livelihood of the people.
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Bibugn Districts, Ethnobotany, Homegarden, Species Diversity, Use Values