The contribution of a fruit tree-based agro forestry system for household income to smallholder farmers in dale District, Sidama zone, Southern Ethiopia

Fruit tree based agroforestry system has great roles to play in the livelihood improvement and it provides multiple contributions of household income and supplementary food for smallholder farmers. However, there is limited quantitative empirical evidence on the contribution of fruit based agroforestry system. Therefore, this study was initiated to examine fruit tree based agroforestry system and its contribution of household income for livelihood improvement in Dale District. Data was collected through a combination of focus group discussions, key informant interviews, household survey and field inventories. A total of 145 respondents from three kebeles were interviewed and data were analyzed by using descriptive statistics and econometric analysis. The results revealed that the status of fruit based agroforestry in the study area varies with land holding size. Fruit trees such as; Musa acuminate, Persea americana and Mangifera indica were the major types of tree species grown in the system in the study area. The contribution of fruit for poor, medium and rich households was 3166.8 Birr, 3713.8 Birr and 1380 Birr respectively. The fruit tree contributes 24.75% for poor HHs, 23.34% for medium HHs and 5.16% for rich HHs from the total income. The average income earned from fruit trees was 2754 Ethiopian Birr (ETB) per year. Besides, the result from the econometric analysis indicates that access to extension service, family size, land size, and the number of livestock influenced the income from fruit trees. Further studies of examining of the market value chain, areas of intervention along the chain and economic value of the fruit tree based agroforestry system including environmental function served by the system is needed to fully understand the contribution of fruit tree based agroforestry system and livelihood improvement