to assess the structure, composition and diversity traditional home garden agroforestry practice and associated with socioeconomic factors affecting its adoption by among smallholder farmers in Tahatay koraro district North-Western Tigray, Northern Ethiopia.

Abstract

Home garden agroforestry practices are more sustainable in areas where there is population pressure and land scarcity. But home garden agroforestry projects commonly suffered from inadequate rates of adoption, and hence understanding farm and farming environment characteristics that affect decision made by farmers is crucial to overcome this problem. Against this background, this study examined structure, composition and diversity of traditional home garden agroforestry practice and associated with socioeconomic factors affecting its adoption and the role of home garden agroforestry in improving on the live hold of smallholder farmers. The sampled kebeles have been selected from T/koraro Woreda; mytmket, adigdad and myadrasha kebeles. A total of 362 households were interviewed to collect information and the determination of vertical and horizontal structure of the home garden agroforestry was conducted for 181 home gardens adopters. All woody species, herbaceous species and crops were counted and recorded in 5m x 5m and 1mx1m quadrants, respectively. Thus, home garden agroforestry has great potential for enhancing food production and farmers’ economic conditions in a sustainable manner through its positive contributions to household income. The finding of research using direct logistic regression suggests that age, education of the household head, credit access, extension service, land holding and livestock holding significantly (p<0.05) affected the adoption of home garden agroforestry technology in the study areas. The other variable such as sex, market accesses and family size was not statistically significant in the adoption of home garden agroforestry at study sites. Furthermore, a total of 34 plant species belonging to 18 families were recorded in sampled home gardens. Shannon diversity index of plant species in the study area were (H'=2.03). The studied home garden agroforestry system had complex structure both vertically and horizontally, which in turn provide economical benefit and ecological service to the households. Additional research is recommended to examine other factors associated with home garden agroforestry (HGAF) adoption, structure, composition and diversity of home garden agroforestry and additional study is needed to assess the contribution of home garden agroforestry practices in those areas for the community.