Abstract
Study was under taken on five agroforestry tree species: Moringa oliefera, Gravilea robusta, Azadarichta indica, Leuceana leucocephala and Cordia africana at Fedis Agricultural Research Center to evaluate their adaptability and growth performance. The experiment was laid out in RCBD with three replications. The growth parameters; diameter, plant height and survival rate were measured and recorded at interval of three months. Results revealed that there were selected agroforestry tree species had no problem on survival and adaptability at study area except some growth variation and the outcome had a significant value at (p<0.05) between treatment’s parameters. The variations among tree species in height growth, root collar diameter development, diameter at breast height and survival rate were highly significant (p<0.05) after four years of age. This could be due to environmental factor and/or genetic potential of the species, which generally govern the growth of a given species. Among the species tasted, Azadarichta indica showed the highest performance followed by Leuceana leucocephala, Moringa oliefera in terms of height growth, root collar diameter and diameter at breast height. Moringa oliefera, Azadarichta indica, and Leuceana leucocephala showed the highest survival rate with 84%, 83.67% and 82.33% respectively. On the other hand, Gravilea robusta and Cordia africana showed lowest performance. Thus, the long dry season, which extended from eight to ten months in the study area, clearly explains the poor survival and growth response in some of the species. Hence it can be inferred that the conditions of Babille matched with the environmental requirement of Moringa oliefera, Azadarichta indica, and Leuceana leucocephala. Therefore, the species offers much promise for future use in agroforestry practices in the area. Generally, the study under Babille conditions and related agro ecology, we advocate these adapted species for further properly allocate species into the site that grow and adapt agro forestry practices, forest plantations and economic and livelihood benefits for different stakeholders.
Highlights
In the context of climate change, increasing population, deforestation, reduced landholdings and declining soil productivity, Ever Green Agriculture is emerging as an affordable and accessible science-based solution that will help smallholders protect and enrich soils, increase food production, adapt to climate change and reduce greenhouse gas emissions [7]
The results indicated that there were significant effect among treatments for plant height, survival rate, root collar diameter and diameter at breast
The result revealed that the survival rate of Moringa oliefera was the highest followed by Azadarichita indica and Leuceana leucocephala
Summary
In the context of climate change, increasing population, deforestation, reduced landholdings and declining soil productivity, Ever Green Agriculture is emerging as an affordable and accessible science-based solution that will help smallholders protect and enrich soils, increase food production, adapt to climate change and reduce greenhouse gas emissions [7]. Population pressure is the main cause for the depletion of forest resources which in turn poses many social and economic problems in Ethiopia. One way of reducing deforestation problem is through agroforestry the integration of trees with crops on farmlands has a great potential for enhancing land productivity while providing essential services to people and the environment and shielding forests from further deforestation and land degradation problems in the Eastern parts of Ethiopia, East Hararghe high. Agroforestry can provide food, fuelwood and fodder for the farm family on a sustained basis [4]. These agroforestry practices could be intensified by using fast growing multipurpose tree species (MPTS) to satisfy the demands of the growing population. Before introducing any species to a given agro ecology, there is a need for a well conducted field trial for matching of the species/provenance to a particular site [10]
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