DIVERSITY OF ENSET (Ensete ventricosum (Welw.), Cheesman) LANDRACES AND ASSOCIATED INDIGENOUS KNOWLEDGE IN ANLEMO DISTRICT, HADIYA ZONE, SNNPR, ETHIOPIA

<strong>ABSTRACT</strong>: Ensete ventricosum (Welw.) Cheesman is a perennial,herbaceous and monocotyledonous crop;which is widely cultivated in south and south western parts of Ethiopia mainly for food. This highly valuable crop is only domesticated in Ethiopia and basically adapted to mid-land and highland areas.This study was conducted in Anlemo district of Hadiya zone aiming at assessing landrace diversity and associated indigenous knowledge of Eset growing local farmers.In this study, data on diversity of Enset landraces and farmers indigenous knowledge such as methods of naming, classification and identification of landraces were gathered using semi-structured interview,field observation and focus group discussion. Data was collected from a total of 389 sample households selected from nine kebeles of Anlemo district. Selectionof sampling kebeles was made purposefully based on their agro-ecology grouped in to 3 groups and accessibility.The results were analyzedusing descriptive statistics, Shannon’s and Simpson diversity.Preference ranking was also used to analyze the Enset landraces best in ‘Kocho’, ‘Bulla’ and ‘Amicho’.A total of 44Enset landraces were recorded and farmers identify each Enset landraces mainly using morphological characteristics. The study also revealed that utilitarian value and tolerance to environmental stresses is the main driving force for on farm maintenance of different Enset landraces. The number of Enset landraces cultivated on individual farms ranged from 3 to 24 (with mean of 8.28). Regarding Enset landrace richness among Kebeles, group-A had the highest richness (37 landraces) and group-B Kebeles the lowest with 28 landraces. The Simpson’s Diversity (1-D) ranged between 0.96 (group-A) to 0.95 (group- C), Shannon (H′) ranged between 3.33 (group-A) to 3.13 in group-C.Group A and B Kebeles exhibited the highest level of similarity in landrace diversity (80%) where as group-C and B the least (72%). Evenness index ranged from 0.93(in group-B) to 0.92(group-A). Enset wilting disease, demands for additional land for other crop production, presence of wild animals were affecting the sustainability of enset in the study area. This study reported the existed farmers knowledge on naming and classification, the traditional farming system and the traditional knowledge regarding propagation and transplanting methods that contributed a lot for the availability of present day diversity and also it is helpful in transmission of the traditional knowledge which is helpful for sustainable management of enset.