Abstract
BackgroundEnsete ventricosum is an important food crop consumed in the form of Bulla and Kocho mainly used in the southern parts of Ethiopia for their sustainable livelihood and ensuring food security. Besides, it is used as animal feed, as well as a source of medicine and fiber. This study was undertaken on the morphological traits among the Enset (Ensete ventricosum) landraces and cultural use of the landraces for the livelihood of people in Mareka woreda, Dawro zone, southern Ethiopia. The study was carried out in purposively selected four kebeles of Mareka district’s Dawro zone.ResultsA total of 145 (20 purposively selected key informants and 125 randomly selected respondents) were interviewed using semi-structured interviews, and field observation was also used to collect ethnobotanical data. The morphological traits were measured according to IBPGR (International Board for Plant Genetic Resources) descriptors for Enset. The data were analyzed by using computer software SPSS v 16.0 as well as Excel 2010 spreadsheet. A total of 33 Enset landraces were identified from the study area. Farmers gave the name for their landraces based on the morphological trait and sources of planting material. Identified landraces were grouped into five clusters based on their morphological trait variability. Mean plant height, pseudostem height, and circumference, leaf size, and numbers have significant differences among clusters. Cluster number five had the highest mean in plant height, pseudostem height, and circumference and cluster number three had the lowest mean. The highest landrace richness was recorded from Ocha (3.18) while the lowest was from Guta (2.56). The most abundant landraces were Amiya, Hoeya, Boza, Yaka, Bothena, Ontha, Adinona, Shasha, and Keteriya in the Mareka district.ConclusionsThis study confirmed that the Dawro zone is rich in diversity of Enset, however, reduction in production and loss of some landraces was observed because of different factors. Therefore, attention must be given to the conservation and maintenances of Enset landraces by all the concerned bodies.