Abstract
We quantitatively examined the relationships between Sorghum landrace diversity at the field level and environmental factors and farmers’ selection practices in north Shewa and south Welo regions of Ethiopia. Surveys were conducted on 260 randomly selected farmers’ fields. The altitude and size of each field were recorded. Sorghum plants at 5 m intervals along transect lines spaced 10 m apart over each field were identified by the farmers and the owner of each field was asked why she/he decided to grow each plant. Soil samples were collected from all of the fields and analyzed for pH, organic content, and sand, silt and clay content. Simple and polynomial regressions and multiple regression analyses showed that Sorghum landrace diversity at the field level had significant relationships with the number of selection criteria used by the farmers, field altitude, field size, pH and clay content. As the number of selection criteria increased, landrace diversity in the fields increased. This relationship was not a result of the correlation between selection criteria and the environmental factors, because it was significant after statistically correcting for the effects of the environmental variables. This study quantitatively confirms the role of traditional farmers in the maintenance of sorghum landrace diversity in north Shewa and south Welo regions of Ethiopia.
Zusammenfassung
Wir untersuchten quantitative Zusammenhänge zwischen der Diversität vonSorghum (Anzahl der Getreidevariationen) im Feld sowie Umweltfaktoren und Auswahlkriterien von Farmern im nördlichen Shewa und im südlichen Welo in Äthiopien. Die Untersuchung wurde an einer Stichprobe von 260 Feldern durchgeführt. Für jedes Feld wurden Höhenlage und Größe erfaßt. Sorghum Pflanzen wurden an den Schnittpunkten eines 5 x 10 Meter Rasters über jedes Feld von Farmern identifiziert und jeder Eigentümer wurde nach dem Grund des Anbaus der Pflanze befragt. Wir entnahmen Bodenproben von jedem Feld, welche auf PH Wert, Gehalt von organischem Material, Sand, Schlick und Lehm analysiert wurden. Einfache, polynomische und mehrfache Regressionsanalysen zeigten signifikante Beziehungen zwischen der Diversität vonSorghum und der Anzahl von Auswahlkriterien der Farmer—Höhenlage, Feldgröße, PH und Lehmgehalt. Mit Zunahme der Auswahlkriterien erhöhte sich die Diversität vonSorghum im Feld. Dieser signifikante Zusammenhang war nicht das Ergebnis der Korrelation zwischen den Auswahlkriterien und Umweltfaktoren, da wir vorher den Effekt der Umweltfaktoren ausge-glichen hatten. Diese Studie quantifiziert die Bedeutung traditioneller Farmer für die Diversität von Sorghum im nördlichen Shewa und im südlichen Welo in Äthiopien.
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Teshome, A., Fahrig, L., Torrance, J.K. et al. Maintenance of sorghum (sorghum bicolor, poaceae) landrace diversity by farmers’ selection in Ethiopia. Econ Bot 53, 79–88 (1999). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02860796
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02860796