Diversity and floristic composition of rural and sub-urban home garden in Wadera district of Oromia region, Ethiopia

Abstract

This study was conducted in Wadera district of Oromia region in Ethiopia, with the objective of quantifying the diversity and floristic composition of home garden agroforestry systems. A stratified random sampling design was used to select 132 sample home gardens and a detailed inspection was conducted on diversity and floristic composition of the plant species using the Shannon-Wiener diversity index and Pielou’s Evenness index. A total of 65 cultivated plant species belonging to 36 families were recorded with an average of 28 plant species per individual’s home garden. Rutaceae was the dominant family with 6 species followed by Lamiaceae and Solanaceae. Shannon’s diversity indexes of 1.63 to 2.06 were recorded at the village level with an overall mean diversity index (H’) of 1.85 and evenness index (E) of 0.58. The findings from this study may help government and other stakeholders in providing baseline information, supported with scientific evidence, which further can contribute to policy and decision making process.   Key words: Agroforestry, home garden, diversity, floristic composition, Guji zone.