Indigenous Knowledge of Enset ( Ensete ventricosum (Welw.) Cheesman) Cultivation and Management Practice by Shekicho People, Southwest Ethiopia

Enset is a multipurpose crop of which every part is thoroughly utilized, cultivated as a food and fibre crop only in Ethiopia, particularly in the southern and south western parts of the country. This research was conducted with objective of exploring distribution, cultivation method and farmers’ traditional management system of ensets cultivars in Sheka Zone, Southwest Ethiopia. The study kebeles were selected using purposive sampling method and the simple random method was employed to select household informants based on the proportion to the size of total enset growing households in selected kebeles, accordingly 270 households were used for this study. The data were collected using open and close ended questionnaires,key informant interview, filed observation and focus group discussion. Then the data was analysed using SPSS 20.0 Software and microsoft excel. In the present exploration 68 enset local varieties (cultivars) have been identified. Maximum enset varieties were recorded (24 per household) from Masha District. Farmers select and maintain these local varieties that best meet their needs using their indigenous knowledge. The farmers cited resistance to pest and disease (25.09%), size of the plant (22.88%) and taste or quality of enset product (19.34%) as important criteria to categorize and select different varieties of enset. Enset local varieties; ‘Gudiro’, ‘Nobo’, ‘Yobo’ and ‘Cherallo’ were claimed to be widely adaptable and disease and pest resistant varieties of enset by most farmers in the area. Farmers cultivate enset in home garden (25.49%) and in main filed (21.64%) or both home garden and main (41.67%) as mono-crop (63.71%) or intercropped (36.29%) mode of cultivation. Enset is cultivated mainly for food (78.82%) in the Zone where the corm and the pseudostem are the most important sources of food. The types of food from these parts are ‘Kocho’, ‘Bulla or Etino’ and ‘Amicho or Utto’. Despite the facts that enset remained staple crop for Sheka zone for centuries, little research and development attention have so far given. As such potential of enset for food security and income generation has not been fully exploited. The traditional farming system and associated traditional wisdom that contributed for the availability of present day diversity need to be maintained and developed further, farmers should be supported and encouraged to continue the on-farm conservation activities. Enset processing is carried out by women using traditional tools and the process is laborious and tiresome. This indicates future research area in processing technology development.