Cultural Use of Homegarden Plants in an Indigenous Community in North West Ethiopia

Background; The oristic composition of homegardens in Northwest Ethiopia in general, and the Gozamin district in particular, has received little research attention. The purpose of this research is to better understand the oristic composition and cultural signicance of homegardens. Methods; Stratied random sampling procedure was used based on agroecological variation in selected kebeles. The homegarden data were collected by dividing the homegarden into four quadrats, the rst quadrat stretched from the farmer’s home to 10m, the second quadrat from10m to 20m, the third quadrat from 20m to 30m and the fourth quadrat from 30m to 40m horizontally using farmer’s house as reference depending on the size of the garden. A semi-structured interview was carried out to document the informant’s knowledge on plant species. Results; A total of 238 culturally important plant species from 81 families were identied. Of these 39% were herbs,29% shrubs, 6% were climbers. Perennials made up the largest part of cultivated species (83%), whereas annuals made up the rest (17%). The Poaceae family had the foremost species, with 22, taken after by the Fabaceae, which had 21, and the Asteraceae which had 15. From these recorded plants,140(58.6%) were species utilized for environmental uses, 84(35%) food crops, 83(34.7%) medicinal plant species, 39(16.3%) fodder species, 57(23.8%) material use plants, 60(25%) fuel wood species, 50(21%) social use plants and 1(0.4%) poisonous. The direct matrix ranking revealed that Cordia Africana was found a versatile culturally important plant in the area which was also extremely threatened, followed by Ficus sur. Cordia africana highest use-value was for Building and the list value was for medicinal. The Sorensen similarity index for 64 percent of the locations investigated was less than 0.5. Conclusion; The result showed that homegardens are multi-functional, long-term production systems. Food security and biodiversity conservation are continuously supported by tribal populations cultural knowledge connected with their homegardens. The less similarity/high species diversity in the area between kebeles indicated

Galluzzi et al. [15], homegardens, whether in rural or urban settings, are multifunctional, allowing them to provide a variety of advantages to ecosystems and people. Homegardens are fundamentally distinct from large-scale agricultural systems According to Zemede and Ayele [22], the size of homegardens in Ethiopia range from 0.004 to 0.05ha and in North Western Ethiopia from 0.004 to 0.05ha [23].
There was less research attention carried out on the homegarden of the present study area. The current study was undertaken aimed at documenting the composition and cultural use of plant species in homegardens of this Gozamin district, Northwest Ethiopia.

Study area
The study was carried out in Gozamin district, East Gojjam, Northwest Ethiopia. It is one of the 20 woredas of East Gojjam zone, Amhara National Regional State [24]). The relative location of the Gozamin district is 300km North West of Addis Ababa, the capital city of Ethiopia, and 260 km southeast of Bahir Dar city, the main administrative capital of Amhara Region. Gozamin district is bounded by Aneded and Debay Tilatgen districts to the East, Machakle and Debre Elias district in west, Senan district in the North, Baso Liben district and Oromia National Regional State in the South ( gure1) [24].
The total population of Gozamin district was 170,690 of which 85,220 were males and 85,470 were female's [25]. Regarding to human health,there are 6 health centers, 27 health posts, 3 private clinics, and1 private pharmacy (drug stores) in the district [26].
The number of households from each kebeles were calculated following Cochran [27], with 95% con dence level with a margin of error equal to (0.05). n=number of households sampled from all kebeles where n o is the sample size and it is expressed as z is the selected critical value of desired con dence level; p is the estimated proportion of an attribute that is present in the population, q = 1-p and e is the desired level of precision N=number of households that have homegarden in 12 kebeles The maximum variability, which is equal to 50% (p =0.5) and taking 95% con dence level with ±5% precision, the calculation for required sample size was as follows-p = 0.5 and hence q=1-0.5 = 0.5; e = 0.05; z=1.96, N =5056 Based on information on the Gozamin district kebeles agricultural o ce [28], the total number of households that have homegarden were taken, and a total of 5056 households with homegarden were recorded. Thus, from 11 kebeles 30 homegarden owners per kebele were selected and from the one kebele 27 homegarden owners were selected. Accordingly, from the 12 kebeles a total of 357 householder respondents were contacted.
According to Dissanayake and Hettiarachchi [29] for woody species in the homegarden 10 m × 10 m (100m 2 ) plot was laid. For herbaceous species 5 small plots, 4 at each corner and 1 within the middle were laid within the expansive quadrats and all plant species in the quadrats were recorded.
According to Millate-E-Mustafa et al. [30] and Zebene Asfaw et al. [23] in the homegarden data were collected by dividing the homegarden into four quadrats, in that the rst quadrat started from the farmer's home to 10m, the second quadrat from10m to 20m, the third quadrat from 20m to 30m and the fourth quadrat from 30m to 40m depending on the size of the garden. The size of the homegarden in the study area reached from 0.015 ha to 0.5 ha. Accordingly, a total of 881 plots were laid across the selected homegarden.
Counting of each useful plant species (presence or absence) was conducted at each homegarden.
A semi-structured interview was carried out to document the informant's knowledge on the use of plants in the garden and information obtained was recorded and analyzed [31].

Descriptive statistics
Homegarden data was analyzed and summarized using different descriptive statistical methods (percentages, graphs, charts, tables.) by using Excel 2016.

Similarity Indices
The Sørensen similarity coefficient was utilized to compare the similarity with in the species composition across homegardens since it gives more weight to the species that are common within the kebeles instead of those that are present in either kebele. The Sørensen similarity index (Ss) was calculated as follows: where a is the number of species common to both samples, b is the number of species in sample1, and c is the number of species in sample 2 [32].

Direct matrix ranking
The direct matrix ranking approach was used to rank multifunctional plant species in order to identify culturally multipurpose important plants in the study area, beside identifying those multipurpose plants which were under higher human use pressure in the study area, as well as the threats they face. Several aspects of plants were considered, including their usage as food, fodder, environmental purposes, medicine, materials, fuel, and social uses. Out of the entire cultural relevance of plants, fteen multifunctional tree species were chosen based on information obtained from informants, and seven use diversities of these plants were listed for 24 key informants to assign use values to each species [31].The usage values(5=best,4=very good,3=good,2=1ess used,1= least used and 0= not used) were allocated to each selected key informants. Then, the use values for each species were summarized and ranked.

Use values (UV)
Use value was used to calculate a quantitative estimate of any individual's relative cultural importance.

UV = ∑ Uis /ns
Where: UVs= Use value of species s -U is: number of uses of species S according to informant (i) -ns-total number of informants interviewed/consulted about use of species S [31] Results The size of homegardens used for plantation in the study area ranged from 0.015 to 0.5 ha. From the overall 357 homegardens, a total of 238 culturally important plant species belonging to 81 families were identi ed. Wenka kebele had the highest homegarden species (130 species belonging to 58 families), while Graram kebele had the least, with 59 species and 30 families (table1).   Total  31  53  53  39  54  54  40   Rank  7  3  3  5  1  1  5 Direct matrix ranking Direct matrix ranking results indicated that Cordia africana ranked as the most widely harvested plant for its multipurpose uses followed by Ficus sur (table2). The total use value of Cordia africana total use value was 4.1, and its largest use value was recorded for its material use.

Similarity among Homegardens
For all the plants collected across the 357 homegardens, Sorenson's Index was calculated. Table 4 shows the Species composition similarity index value across homegardens in the twelve kebeles. The highest similarity index was found between Yboargena and Kbi, Yboargena and Ytegan, indicating that they shared 60% of the plant species. Chimt and Graram, on the other hand, had the lowest similarity values, meaning they shared only 25% of the plant species. The similarity index is larger than 0.5 in 36 % of the cases, and less than 0.5 in 64 % of the cases.

Discussion
Homegardens are crucial in the conservation of bene cial plant species, since they contain numerous species which are often absent or disappearing from other production systems [34]. In accordance with this, the current study indicated that a high number of plant species (238) were recorded from in the homegardens of Gozamin District. This agrees with the high tree species richness reported for Gozamin compared to similar highland agroecosystems such as that of the Jabithenan district in Northwestern Ethiopia, where 69 species from 40 families were reported [23], the Bulen district in Northwestern Ethiopia, where 22 plant species from 15 families were recorded [35], and Southern Tigray, Northern Ethiopia, where 32 plant species from 20 families were recorded [13].
The size of overall homegarden used for plantation in the study area ranged from 0.015 ha to 0.5 ha which shows some variations with other homegardens reported from the same agroecology Jabithenan district reported 0.05 to 0.5ha size [23] and 0.004 to 0.05ha in Ethiopia [22].
Environmental variables and dietary preferences, as well as socioeconomic and commercial needs, are all reported for their in uence in the distribution of species in homegardens [36]. The number of plant species varied between sites as observed in the current study area. Since there was irrigation water and Wenka is close to the main town Deberemarkos, it had a signi cant number of homegarden species, (130 species in 58 families). The site supplied food crops to Debremarkos town, primarily fruits and vegetables, and this encouraged farmers to sell their homegrown produce in areas with strong market access [11,37].
In the study area, homegardening provides subsistence food production and family food security by producing vegetables, fruits, cereals, spices, beverages. Such wide use and service of homegardens was also reported by other authors [38][39][40][41][42][43]. Fruits were the most commonly utilized plant parts from food crops in the studied homegardens. The result goes in line with other reports [40,42,44]. This shows homegardens are the main sources of fruits.
A total of 83 therapeutic plants were found in selected homegardens. This demonstrates that gardening has placed a greater emphasis on human health and well-being [1]. Dracaena steudneri was found with medicinal properties for treating livestock ailments, it was also cited for treating bad sprits, besides its decorative nature, fodder, shade plant, fence and other cultural and hence was common within the study area. This proves that cultural value has center point for preserving plants this also founded by [45].
Environmental useful plants as fence, shade and ornamental plants cover 140 (58.6%) plant species under 66 Families. This was supported by Kumar and Nair [17] who showed homegardens were praised for preserving biodiversity and preventing environmental degradation.
Fence plants were the most common species in home gardens, where they serve as a barrier to keep fruits, vegetables, spices, and other items safe. This culture on the study site keeps diverse plant species safe around their homes and gardens. The study found that the majority of the homegardens analyzed were encircled by a live fence this was in agreement with other works in Ethiopia [12,35].
Social useful plants account 50(21%) of the species identi ed and use for religious ceremonies, stimulants, smoking and baking purpose. Coffea arabica, which was used in households and for the market, was discovered in all study sites, and Catha edulis, which was utilized for the market to generate income, was also detected in most study sites. This was also shown in other research ndings [11,35]. Also, Mellisse et al.
[46] recently reported that, there has been a dramatic movement away from conventional family gardens toward cash crop Catha edulis based systems, especially in locations near marketplaces. A total of 2 (0.84%) plants were found to be utilized in the preparation of bread and potatoes. Ensete ventricosum which was used for baking bread, potting injera, and malting malt, was described as having a nutraceutical nature only [41,[47][48][49], Galium aparinoides was a weed that was commonly used to cook potatoes since it cooks it quickly and had a wonderful avor, however Mekonen et al. [41] classi ed it as a weed that affects the variety and productivity of homegarden plants.
Snowdenia polystachya, which grows readily when there was enough water, was the highest fodder plant recorded, followed by Cenchrus ciliaris and Cynodon dactylon, which grow in front of the respondents' house to feed their cattle, sheep, and donkey. Because it was cited as a multipurpose plant in the area as a food plant, fodder, and fuel; the stem of Zea mays was used as fodder and fuel in the area. Vernonia amygdalina and Vernonia myriantha were more common in the garden because of their multifunctional uses for fodder, medicinal, fence, fuel, and other cultural values, likewise the root wax of Malva verticillata, is used as fodder for small calves in the region. This is in line with Nair [50], who states that multifunctional tree species were the foundation of most tropical backyard gardens.
In the area, 60 (25%) fuel plant species in 30 families were discovered, indicating that local residents cover some of the fuel demand from gardens. Similar fuel demand was reported by Xiaohua et al. [51]. Also evident in Sub-Saharan Africa that about 76 % of the population (93 % of the rural and 58 % of the urban) cooks with biomass fuel.
The similarity index for 64 %of the locations investigated was less than 0.5, suggesting that there was less similarity/high species diversity in the area. This might be due to differences in agroecological conditions amongst sites, as evidenced by Ertiro et al. [52], which demonstrates that agroecology has an impact on variation.
The direct matrix index revealed that Cordia africana, a multifunctional culturally important plant in the area was also extremely endangered, came rst, followed by Ficus sur and Vernonia amygdalina. Cordia africana had the highest use-value for construction and the lowest usevalue for medicinal. These ndings suggested that these culturally signi cant multifunctional species were presently being used increasingly to make material and other cultural uses. Cupressus lusitanica was a common plant in all sampled kebeles because of its multipurpose function as an ornamental plant, for construction and building; as gum used in food, forage, fence fuel, and this was also reported by Mekonen et al. [41]. From fragrant plants, Ruta chalepensis and Olea europaea subsp.cuspidata were common in all kebeles this was also supported by Lulekal et al. [53]. Olea europaea subsp. Cuspidata was also noted for its multipurpose value as medicine, cultural value, building, fragrance, fence. People in the study area believed that the fumigation of Olea europaea subsp. Cuspidata in the house by leaves and stems remove bad spirits and bad odors from the house, also used to fumigate milk, Tela and Tej (local beverages) pots this agrees with [54].
Herbs were the most common species in the homegardens in the current study. Mekonen et al. [41] and Regassa [40] agreed with this, whereas Mengestu [42] claimed that trees were the dominating species in the Dilla Zuriya district. The Poaceae, Fabaceae, and Asteraceae families had the most species in the study area, this might be owing to the dominance of the Fabaceae, Asteraceae, and poaceae families in Ethiopian and Eritrean ora, as mentioned in [55-57].
Year-round, a variety of items such as vegetables, fruits, and spices, as well as building and construction materials, medicinal plants, plant species used for re, and culturally important plants, are grown and sold at the local market. This allowed farmers to be encouraged by selling homegrown items in their region with easy access to markets [11,37].

Conclusion
Homegardening gives subsistence food production and family food security by producing vegetables, fruits, cereals, spices, beverages. In other words, homegardens are seen as a multi-functional, long-term generating systems.
Plant species that are culturally important have a high value in terms of family household income production, food security, therapeutic, decorative, and other nonfood ways of life though cultural value may be a key gure in biodiversity preservation. Food security and biodiversity preservation are continuously supported by tribal populations' cultural knowledge connected with their homegardens.
Because there were numerous homegarden plant species within the study area and the area had less forest cover, legitimate homegarden management is the foremost vital way to preserve biodiversity, and contribute to ecosystem services in the consider area.

Declarations
Ethics approval and consent to participate District o cers and traditional leaders of local communities were visited at each study location to gain their permission to conduct interviews in the area under their control. Participants were told orally of the research aims and their right to participate or withdraw prior to conducting interviews. After the interview, participants signed a written format expressing that they agreed that the interview followed the principle of prior informed consent.

Consent for publication
Not applicable

Competing interests
The authors declare that they have no competing interests Metsehet Yinebeb is the main author, involved in the methodology, eldwork, and data analysis, wrote the rst draft and concluded the nal version of this paper. Dr Ermias Lulekal and Prof. Tamrat Bekele are the main supervisors of the research work, participated in the design and monitoring of the research and data analyses and reviewed several drafts of the manuscript. All authors read and approved the nal manuscript.

Funding
All the nancial cost and required research logistics of the research was fully funded by Addis Ababa university.

Availability of data and materials
All data analyzed during this study are included in this published article.
52. Ertiro, B.T., et al., Genetic variation and population structure of maize inbred lines adapted to the mid-altitude sub-humid maize agroecology of Ethiopia using single nucleotide polymorphic (SNP) markers. BMC genomics, 2017. 18(1): p.  The importance of homegarden plant species in the study areas The habits of important homegarden plant species recorded in the study area