Initial Growth Responses of Multipurpose Tree Species Under Termite Infested Areas at Mana Sibu District of West Wollega Zone, Oromia Regional State, Ethiopia

Abstract

An experimental study was carried out at Mana Sibu district of West Wollega zone, Oromia Regional state, Ethiopia to evaluate and select multipurpose tree species for rehabilitation of termite degraded area. Seven tree species (Cordia africana, Melia azedrach, Albizia gummifera, Jacaranda mimosifolia, Acacia mearnsii, Acacia albida and Croton macrostychus) were used for the experiment and both organic and inorganic fertilizers were also used as a treatment to support the seedlings for initial survival. The treatments were arranged in the split plot using RCB Design with three replications in which the fertilizers were randomized on main plots and tree species on sub plots of the main plot. Data on dead seedlings count of the planted trees, Root collar diameter and height of the tree species were collected. SPSS statistical computer software was used to analyze the data. The result of the analysis revealed that there was significance difference between the survival counts of tree species with respect to termite attack. Hence, Cordia africana and Acacia mearnsii were the most susceptible (p<0.05) tree species to termite attack followed by Albizia gummifera and Croton macrostychus, whereas Jacaranda mimosifolia and Melia azedarach were tolerant as compared to the others. There was no significance difference between the applications of the different fertilizers to support the seedlings for initial growth and survival but there was numerical difference such that application of inorganic fertilizer had more survival followed by organic fertilizer application. However, plots with no fertilizer application (control) showed less survival than both fertilizers. In general Jacaranda mimosifolia and Melia azedarach were very tolerant to termite attack followed by Albizia gummifera when compared to Cordia africana and Acacia mearnsii which were very susceptible. However, application of any fertilizer type for supporting the initial survival of the seedlings was not important from an economic point of view since there was no statistically significance difference with the control. Therefore, selection of appropriate tree species which tolerate termite attack without the application of any fertilizer for rehabilitation of termite degraded areas was very crucial.

Survival and Growth Response of Four Agroforestry Species to Post Planting Management Regimes

“…Survival rate varies between and within species(Sinclair and Coe, 2019)and from site to site(Davis and Pinto, 2021). Seedlings survival was high during early plantations(Gebre et al, 2022)and stabilizes after the second year(Sukhbaatar et al, 2020).In the second and third years, survival rate declined slightly and remained unchanged in the fourth year(Shi et.al., 2019).Similarly, the overallsurvival ratein our study decreased from 100 to45.8%twenty months after planting. Different survival rate values had reported for the same tree species in different time and areas.Authors such as Talema et al, (2019);Cheneke and Abdella, (2021); Gebre et al, (2022)reported relatively poor survival rate (37-68%) values of G. robusta and itagreeswith thecurrent study(56.3%).…”