Although home gardens are important for sustainable agriculture and resilience building in the face of climate change, recent development initiatives failed to include them as a viable option. This ethnobotanical study was conducted to document the role of home gardens for food security, conservation and sustainable use of medicinal and other multipurpose species in Angecha District, Southern Ethiopia. Data were collected from owner of home garden using semi-structured interview, discussions, observations and market survey. Vegetation data was collected from 75 home gardens which were selected randomly. Descriptive statistics was used for data analysis. Food plants were dominant in the home gardens followed by medicinal plants. A total of 44 food plants belonging to 38 genera and 18 families were documented from the surveyed home gardens. Ensete ventricosum was the most frequent and widely used multipurpose plant and women play a significant role its production cycle from propagation to harvesting. Women were empowered to manage home gardens and sell products in markets. Medicinal plants managed by the farmers 22 (belonging to 21 genera and 17 families). Herbs were the most commonly used growth forms and leaves were the most frequently used parts in traditional medicine. Home gardens were important for enhancing food and nutritional security, promoting ecosystem services and contributing to improving family income. It was concluded that there was high need to promote home gardens as part of sustainable farming system for food security and nutritional requirements, and for sustainable use of plants for diverse needs of communities.

 Keywords: food plants, fruits and vegetables, indigenous knowledge, medicinal plants

Home gardens have been common practices for indigenous communities in many developing countries such as Ethiopia. It started with the domestication of edible plants and can be described as a mixed cropping system that encompasses vegetables, fruits, plantation crops, spices, herbs, ornamental and medicinal plants.¹ Home gardens have been closely associated with cultural practices of local communities where domesticated species are used for food, medicinal and other purposes. Farmers in developing countries manage these plants used for their food, medicine, spices, shade and other family needs in their home gardens. Review of studies from around the world suggests that home gardens can be a versatile option to address food insecurity in various challenging situations.¹ Home gardens are important for the conservation of useful plant species since they contain many and diverse species which may be absent from other production systems.² Home gardens also provide a wide range of ecological benefits and services and valuable set of products for the rural including food, fuel and fodder.^2,3 They are used to grow medicinal, spice, ornamental and stimulant plants.⁴

Enset (Ensete ventricosum, family Musaceae) is one of the root crops commonly cultivated in southern and southwestern part of Ethiopia. Enset has been cultivated in Ethiopia since ancient times. It is part of a sustainable production system.⁵ The genus enset is close to, but distinctly separate from the genus musa, the common banana. Enset has been cultivated in Ethiopia since ancient times. It is part of a sustainable production system⁵ and many communities. The genus enset is close to, but distinctly separate from the genus musa, the common banana. The vegetative growth habit of enset is similar to banana plants, but Ensete ventricosum doesn’t spontaneously produce suckers and is not grown for fruits, these contains mostly large and very hard seeds and plants are usually harvested at onset of flowering.⁶

Enset is a multi-purpose and drought tolerant crop. There are several hundred landraces (clones) having different characteristics and enset is used for food, fodder, fibre and traditional medicine.⁷ The vegetative growth habit of enset is similar to banana plants, but Ensete ventricosum doesn’t spontaneously produce suckers and is not grown for fruits, these contains mostly large and very hard seeds and plants are usually harvested at onset of flowering.⁶ The nutritive value of the food is similar to potato and the fodder composition is suitable for ruminants. Enset is most commonly grown in home gardens frequently intercropped with peas and beans which is suitable to compensate the low protein level in enset foods.⁸

The enset farming system where enset is cultivated as perennial plantation is homestead ring is association with other companion crop species growing in main agricultural land is rich in both interspecific and intraspecific diversity.⁶ Being a long- leaved monocarp, enset improve local climate and soil condition when cultivated especially the deep roots are important in preventing nitrogen loss and environmental pollution.⁹

Home based medical plant use relies on plants of the home garden crops, weeds that grow wild around human habitation. The cultivated medicinal plants are mostly produced in home garden either for medicinal or other primary purposes.¹⁰ Medicinal plants are grown in home gardens all over the world and in developing countries nearly 80% of the people use them to treat various illness, diseases, and also to improve their health conditions.¹¹

Local communities have developed indigenous knowledge for the sustainable management of home gardens and had been using and transferring this knowledge to the next generations for the betterment of their life. Indigenous knowledge is used to sustain the community’s culture, religion and environment and also for conservation and sustainable use of local biodiversity.¹²

Indigenous knowledge has been the basis for agriculture, health care, food preparation, education, environmental conservation and other activities.¹³ Therefore, there is a need for systematic documentation of such a useful knowledge through ethnobotanical research.¹⁴ Zemede Asfaw¹⁰ reported that in Ethiopia, the selection plant species for live fence is related to multiple uses like produce edible fruits and having spines and have traditional ways of restricting the uncontrolled transfer of planting materials (germplasm) from home gardens.

Ethiopia has diverse agroecology with many ethnic groups practicing different home gardens management cultures. Many plant species were conserved and used in the different cultures in diverse home gardens in the Country. However, with increasing human population and land degradation, both the size and number of home gardens and species in them have been decreasing over time. Studies showed that problems such as genetic erosion, loss of indigenous knowledge of cropping patterns and management practices, human induced habit changes (change in land use) and drought had threatened home gardens and agrobiodiversity in them.¹⁵

Data on ethnobotanical study of home garden species in Angecha district were limited. Therefore, this study was conducted to document home garden plants, their use categories, to identify multipurpose and marketed species and to document indigenous knowledge of local communities on the uses and conservation practices of home garden species.

Description of the study area

The study was conducted in Angecha District located in Southern Nations, Nationalities and Peoples Region (SNNPR) at a distance of 260 km south of Addis Ababa (Figure 1). The district has an area of 17754.31 hectares. The exact location of the study sites were Amberitcho Wasera, Gerba Fendide and JobaDodoba with the latitude and longitude of E 0806627/ 37N 0372367, E 0808021/37N0369579 and E 0815875/37N0371306, respectively.

The soil type of the area is 85% loam soil, 10% clay soil and 5% Red soil.¹⁶

Climate

Angecha District had two agro- ecological Zones locally called Hanisewa (35%) and Hanisewa Kalea (65%) which means highland (Dega) and midland (Woyinedega), respectively.¹⁶ The study area had alternating wet and dry season. Based on last ten years data from 2006-2015 climate data obtained from the National meteorological Service Agency of Ethiopia, the annual mean maximum and minimum temperature were 24.3⁰C and 12.8°C, respectively. The total mean annual rainfall from 2006 to 2015 was 112 mm.

 Population and livelihoods

According to AWLEAD¹⁶ data, the total population size of Angecha District was 107565. The District was dominated by Kembata people ethnic group. The livelihood of local communities was mainly dependent on small scale subsistence agriculture. Enset cultivation in home gardens was common practice in the area.

Ethnobotanical data collection

Ethnobotanical techniques were applied to collect data on perception and management of enset based home garden plants used by people in Angecha district. Group discussion, semi- structured interview, field observation, preference ranking, direct matrix ranking and paired comparison were used for data collection.^12,14 The interview and discussion were conducted in Kembata language using translator and in Amharic language (whenever possible).

 Market survey

A market survey was conducted to record the variety and amount of food and other products that have market values in Angecha District. There four market centers in the District: Angecha town big market, Gojame market around Ambericho Wasera study sites, Fendide market in Gerba Fendide site and Utuge market around Joba Dodoba study site. Survey was done in all of these markets by interacting with sellers, producers and consumers using semi-structured questionnaires.

Preference ranking

Preference ranking was done following Martin.¹⁴ Each rank was given a value 1, 2, 3, 4, etc. with the most important item given the highest value while the least assigned the smallest value. This method was applied to rank selected enset based home garden species according to their function. Fifteen key informants were given six food crops that frequently occurred in their home garden and asked to rank them based on their personal preference. A pre- prepared interview questions were used during data collection that included the management and conservation practices of enset based home garden plant species, to what extent conservation practices were undertaken by the people in enset based home garden and uses of enset based home garden by the local people etc.

Paired comparison

This method was used to rank five selected food crops that had market utility based on the list given by 15 key informants. A list of the pairs of selected item with all possible combinations was made and sequence of the pairs and the order within each pair was randomized before every pair was presented to selected informants and their responses recorded and total value was summarized. The total number of possible pairs was calculated by n (n-2) were n, is the number of the items being compared.

Direct matrix ranking

Direct matrix ranking is one of the tools which involve asking people to order their much favored enset based home garden plants by taking into account several characteristics (food, medicinal, timber, fire wood, fodder etc) following Martin.¹⁴ Based on information gathered from key informants, six multipurpose tree species were selected and asked to assign value (5=best, 4=very good, 3= good 2= less used, 1= least used and 0= not used. Finally the results of fifteen respondents were added to get matrix that represent the views of the entire community.

 Vegetation data collection and identification

During field data collection with the help of selected knowledgeable elders, owner of home garden and developmental agents of agricultural sector, plant specimens were collected. Local names and habits of each plant were recorded, numbered, pressed and dried. All plant specimens collected were taken to Addis Ababa University National Herbarium for identification. Taxonomic identifications were undertaken using taxonomic keys and published volumes of the Flora of Ethiopia and Eritrea. The identified specimens with labels were deposited at the National Herbarium.

Food plants in home gardens

This study documented a total of 44 food plants belonging to 38 genera and 18 families were documented from the surveyed home gardens (Table 1). Pocaeae, Fabaceae, Lamiaceae, Solanaceae and Rutaceae were important families. Poaceae was most dominant family represented by 6 genera and 6 species followed by Fabaceae, Lamiaceae and Solanaceae (each represented by 4 genera and 4 species). The highest number of food plants was fruits (represented by 10 species) followed by vegetables (represented by 10 species). Cereals and pulses were represented by 9 species (Table 1).