Homegarden Agroforestry as a Tool for Sustainable Production Unit in Ethiopia

Homegarden is the chief center of production unit in Ethiopia, particularly for the poor smallholder families. Homegarden is an area of land in the household’s compounds and its surrounding’s where different annual crops, livestock’s and trees integrated and produced. In the rural part of Ethiopia, homegarden agroforestry has a paramount importance since ancient time. It has been providing different useful products and services to millions of rural households. On the top of these benefits, little attention was given to homegarden agroforestry rather than giving due attention on how to make it more productive unit of land. This review paper was initiated to draw attention of scholars and policy makers through elucidating the production potential and ecological importance of homegarden agroforestry (HGA). HGA encompasses multiple components (tree, crop, livestock’s and etc), and intensive management practice with multistory production system based on the good will of the land user’s, knowledge and skills. HGA provides different goods to the household families’ including food/fruit, fuelwood, fodder, timber and other tree products. It also functions as in-situ conservation of biodiversity. Therefore, inclusion of appropriate multipurpose tree and shrub species is recommended to maximize the production potential of this unit of land. Keywords: Multiple products, production and productivity, Livelihood mechanisms DOI: 10.7176/JRDM/67-02 Publication date:July 31st 2020

Determinants of Food Insecurity in Pastoral and Agro-Pastoral Households of Ethiopia

Food insecurity is one of the prime challenges of Sub-Sahara African countries in general and pastoral and semi-pastoral households of Ethiopia in particular. Many researches has been investigated on food insecurity, however the problem remains still continuing especially during unfavorable climatic season. Different research findings pointed out that pastoral areas mainly characterized by unpredictable and unstable climatic conditions, as well as ecologically fragile environment. Pastoral areas are also characterized by frequent draught, conflict, flood and food insecurity as well as inadequate facilities and infrastructure. Low human development features, manifested by very low primary & secondary schools gross enrollment rate.  The paper went ahead to discuss on the vulnerability of pastoral communities to food insecurity, the causes of food insecurity was reviewed from different literatures. Determinants of food insecurity in pastoral and agro-pastoral households of Ethiopia and finally indicted some policy implications. Keywords:   food insecurity, pastoral DOI: 10.7176/FSQM/85-06 Publication date:March 31st 201

A Review on Distribution, Behavior, Population Status, And Conservation Issues of Menelik’s Bush Buck (Tragelaphus Scriptus Menelk)

Menelk bush buck (Tragelaphus scriptus Menelk) is medium-sized herbivores. Their population number is confined to a few groups into sub-areas with criteria such as their good relationships and isolation. Anthropogenic disturbance and its impacts on biodiversity pose urgent challenges to biologists as we emphasized throughout this review. The main objective of this work is to review the distribution, behavior, Population status, and conservation issues of Menelk’s bush buck ( Tragelaphus scriptus Menelk). Causes of decrease in numbers seem to be related to the restricted habitat availability due to changes in human agro-pastoral activities, which resulted mainly in reduced day-cover availability and possibly reduced food base. This review concludes the basic aspects of Menelk bush buck distribution, ecology, nutritional habits and evaluates the main threats and destruction of Menelk bush buck management. Menelk bush buck seem to do well in moderately modified agro-systems with non- invasive human activities. &nbsp

The Role of Urban Agriculture in Economic, Social and Environmental Sustainability in Africa

The role of urban agriculture in socio-economic and environmental sustainability in Africa was reviewed in this seminar. The main objective of this paper was to reveal the role of urban agriculture in socio-economic and environmental sustainability in Africa. Different theoretical and empirical literatures conducted by most scholars were rectified that the benefits of urban agriculture is unarguable issue. Many scholars argue that urban agriculture played a paramount significant role in job creation, in access to balanced diet, in access to fresh milk, vegetables and fruit for urban dwellers. Urban agriculture is also part of the urban greenery that improves the urban micro-climate, increases biological diversity, as well as the aesthetics and recreational functions of urban areas. But there were still some other scholars that urban agriculture has negative externalities on metropolitan. According to theories and empirical studies, not easy access to land, lack of experience, lack of financial support, grazing of crops by animals and theft of farm products, low land productivity, lack of training, access to credit facilities and high interest rates were  identified as the potential challenges for the development of urban agriculture. As a result of the numerous importance of this sector government and other non-government should initiate programmes in support of urban agriculture in order to overcome the aforementioned problems. Keywords: urban agriculture DOI: 10.7176/JNSR/9-2-0

Survivor Success Story: Mezgebu Abiyu Tesfaye

Mezgebu Abiyu Tesfaye, an Ethiopian landmine survivor, was born in the East Gojjam zone, Amhara region, in 1967. Raised in a farming family, Mezgebu left school after the eighth grade to help his parents care for their cattle and do daily chores

Threats, Community Perception of Biological Resource Conservation and Solution in Dati Wolel National Park of Ethiopia

Protected areas are the core biodiversity home all through the world. The Dati Wolel National Park is also one of the newly protected areas of Ethiopia containing diverse habitat in the country. The park was established in 2010, this supports high levels of species richness and endemism. In Dati Wolel National Park several Mammalians and Birds have been recorded. In Addition, the park has vital source for more rivers and plants. In spite of the substantial potential of the area, agricultural land is increasing rapidly, grazing areas are heavily degraded, forests are being cut and cleared, and water systems disturbed. There is no actual resource possession, and employers are taking advantage as open access resource management regimes in the area. Consequently, resource damages are increasing alarmingly. Having the badly behaved, remedial solutions involved for management of park resources are negligible. Hence, this paper aims to foldaway the threats of Bio diversity of Dati Wolel National Park and to suggest solutions. &nbsp