Indigenous Knowledge of Enset (Ensete ventricosum (Welw.) Cheesman) Disease Protection by Gurage People, Southern Ethiopia

Abstract

In Ethiopia, the Enset -based farming system is a major agricultural system that serves at least one-fifth of the country’s population. Farmers locally have received knowledge from generations of experience and experimentation that match neighborhood conditions. Yet, the scientific strategies were less used farmers’ Enset (Ensete ventricosum (Welw.) production and protection. This study aimed at assessing farmer’s indigenous knowledge of protecting their Enset crops form disease. The study adopted multistage sampling methods and a total of 135 respondents were selected. The study identifies, “chegino”, “Janfa”, and “quaqusa” as the major and the most important diseases that counteract the Enset production in the study area. Furthermore, the study indicates the traditional disease prevention methods of the community to control the habitually acknowledged Enset disease. Most farmers in the surveyed area use sanitation (37.8 %) or uprooting of infected Enset plants and Dis-budding (31 %) then burn or bury the residue for reducing the spread of the disease. However, crop rotation and rotation of planting holes were applied by few farmers. Besides, this study shows that the death of experienced older folks, climate variability, farmers moving to other crop production, and lack of help to apply local knowledge is the primary imperatives of the farmers to apply native knowledge on the ranchers in the study area. Thus, farmers' indigenous knowledge can be combined with scientific knowledge to improve livelihood of the farmer.

The Morpho-Somatic and Chromosomal Changes in Colchicine Polyploidy Induction Colocasia esculenta var. Antiquorium

“…Wulandari et al (2015) conclude that 0.1% colchicine treatment for 1-hour is the most efficient in producing tetraploid Pumelo Nambangan citrus plants. Asif (2001) and Tesfaye (2005) reported that chromosomes were doubled in Musa balbisiana, various Musa acuminata subspecies, and Ensete ventricosum species using seeds, respectively. In polyploid induction, colchicine was found to be very efficient (Ganga 2002) depending on the variable amount of media, antimitotic agent, type of explant, exposure time, and concentration.…”

Genetic Diversity, Population Structure and Selection Signatures in Enset (Ensete ventricosum, (Welw.) Cheesman), an Underutilized and Key Food Security Crop in Ethiopia

“…Enset is highly drought tolerant with a wide agroecological distribution and is cultivated only with household-produced inputs (Brandt et al 1997;Tsegaye and Struik 2002). It is unknown whether its wide distribution across a range of altitudes involves genetic or phenotypic adaptation (Tsegaye 2002).…”

“…Ethnic groups in Ethiopia recognize and exploit various enset landraces. Regions in Ethiopia with diverse cultural history have rich biodiversity (Tsegaye 2002). Ensetbased farming system is a major agricultural system and farmers cultivate many enset landraces across various climatic and agroecological systems (Borrell et al 2019).…”