Abstract

We explored the socio-ecological factors mediating the crop composition in home gardens of southwest Ethiopia. For this, eleven kebeles were purposively selected based on the altitudinal variations that range between 1980-3271 ma.s.l. From each kebele 11 households were randomly selected and in total 121 households were used for the study. Here, a complete plant inventory was undertaken in home gardens along with the socio-economic survey using semi-structured questionnaire. The effects of altitude, woody cover, distance to market and type of crop raiders on species composition was tested using Adonis function. The effects of altitude, woody species richness and home gardens distance to forest edge on crop species richness were tested using Linear Mixed Effect Model within lmer function using R statistical program. The effect of wealth status on crop species richness was tested using One-way ANOVA. Altogether, 45 crop species belonging to 38 genera and 25 families were recorded. The species composition of crops was significantly affected by wood cover in home gardens (P=0.02), altitude (P=0.001), distance to market (P=0.01) and types of crop raiders (P=0.03). Similarly, crop species richness decreased with increasing altitudinal gradient, increased with increasing distance from forest edges and woody plant species richness (P<0.02) and vary among the different wealth categories of the households (P=0.002). Overall, this study denotes that socio-ecological factors determine crop species composition and richness in home gardens of southern Ethiopia.

Keywords: Agro-biodiversity; Agro-ecosystem; Crop composition; Home gardens; Socio-ecological factors; Landscapes