Tricyclic flflavonoid BrCl-flav was obtained as previously described

All those results clearly indicate that the main BrCl-flav mechanism of action is related to membrane disruption followed by cell lysis. Hyphae and biofilm formation—two critical virulence factor of C. albicans—were investigated to better understand how BrCl-flav affects fungal cells. Both Candida virulence attributes are interlinked, contributing not only to the host tissue invasion but also to the evasion of host immunity . Our study revealed that BrCl-flav prevented both yeast to hyphal transition and biofilm formation. The effect was concentration dependent, increasing BrCl-flav concentrations resulting in an increased inhibitory activity. Moreover, the tested antifungal impaired plasma membrane organization, a cell structure which promotes also the virulence of the human fungal pathogen C. albicans highlighting BrCl-flav therapeutic potential. Biofilm formation also contributes to Candida antifungal resistance—a major problem faced by modern medicine. One solution could be the use of synergistic combinations of new molecules with traditional antifungals used in therapy to which Candida strains have already become resistant.

Flavonoids in combination with fluconazole have been shown to display remarkable synergistic antifungal effects and are considered as reliable compounds for antifungal drug research and development . In our study which involved a fluconazole resistant C. albicans clinical isolate, the MIC of fluconazole was 128-fold reduced in combination with BrCl-flav,suggesting an important synergistic antifungal activity. We have to emphasize also that a combination of BrCl-flav and fluconazole in lower concentrations compared with individual MIC values showed important fungicidal effect with total kill after 48 h of incubation.The structure and purity of the final compound have been established by NMR, MS, IR and elemental analysis. UV-Vis spectroscopy was employed to monitor the stability of BrCl-flav towards Sabouraud dextrose broth , RPMI 1640 and phosphate buffer saline . The tricyclic flavonoid proved to be stable over a time span equivalent to the performed tests.Developing countries are facing an increasing demand for protein and other nutrientrich foods. In this context, legumes can contribute as the most valuable source of nutrients and provide high-quality dietary proteins .

Legume plants have desirable characteristics such as an abundance of carbohydrates, the ability to lower serum cholesterol, high fiber, a high concentration of polyunsaturated fatty acids, and long shelf life. In addition to B complex vitamins such as folate, thiamin, and riboflavin, minerals, and fiber, legumes are also major sources of proteins and calories . Furthermore, it is evidenced that sprouts are the richest source of proteins and other compounds of nutritional value compared to un-sprouted plants . Moreover, sprouts have also been associated with a variety of biologically active constituents with potential health benefits. During germination, metabolic enzymes are activated, which can lead to the release of some amino acids and peptides, and the synthesis or use of them can form new proteins. As a consequence, the nutritional and medicinal value might be enhanced by sprouting in legumes. Research has to be geared to exploit the sprouting of legumes and enhance their nutrition values to meet the nutritional requirements of the increasing population. The genus of Canavalia is considered the third largest family among flowering plants . It comprises approximately 50 species of tropical vines widely distributed in tropical and subtropical regions all over the world . This genus was used traditionally as a food due to its nutritional significance.

Sridhar and Seena envisaged a comparative account of nutritional and functional properties of Canavalia species . Canavalia gladiata and Canavalia ensiformis are the common legume species having the potential to be a rich protein source, like edible legumes . Pharmacological effects of Canavalia gladiata are reported for cancer , allergies , antioxidants , and inflammation . Canavalia gladiata in complex with Arctium lappa extract is proposed to develop as a functional food for stimulating immunity . Similarly, the seeds of Canavalia ensiformis are a source of proteins with biotechnological importance including ureases and proteases . Processed seeds of Canavalia ensiformis are reported for enhanced antioxidant activity . Hence, Canavalia species are of high medical importance, and with proper seed priming with micronutrients and using other treatments nutritional and pharmacological values can be enhanced. Micronutrients are vital for plant growth because they act as a cofactor of the enzyme, take part in redox reactions, and have several other important functions . Furthermore, despite addition to the soil, micronutrient application using seeds improves the stand formation, advances phenological events, and increases yield and micronutrient grain contents . Like different micronutrients, molybdenum is very vital and essential for plants’ physiological functions. In plants with inadequate Mo, nitrates accrue in leaves, which then do not assimilate into proteins. In legumes, Mo serves an additional function: to help root nodule bacteria to fifix atmospheric nitrogen.

This would require a concerted initiative to be conceived and implemented by several Ministries in coordination

Moreover, the African continent is also affected by a number of vector-borne zoonotic infections caused either by viruses , Rift Valley Fever and Yellow Fever or by bacteria , which require parasitological and entomological expertise to be effectively addressed, due to their vectoral components . Indeed, recognising the parasitological/entomological constituents in the epidemiology of these infections is essential as it helps identifying potential arthropod or vertebrate reservoirs, thus ultimately preventing and controlling the diseases in humans and animals. In Uganda, for example, when it was first encountered, in 2013, CCHF was initially feared to be the more deadly Ebola , which has occasionally crossed the country’s border with the Democratic Republic of the Congo . Ever since, CCHF has occurred in the country in the form of outbreaks within or in the proximity of the “cattle corridor”, a region spanning northeastern, central and southwestern districts, known indeed for the density of its cattle herds . With most cases being associated with exposure to bites of ticks who have fed on viraemic cattle or ruminant hosts , the effective control of this infection could be achieved through the rollout of strategic targeted tick control programmes and the sensitisation of the general public and farming communities on the epidemiology of CCHF.

Considering that the same cattle corridor witnesses sporadic cases of mosquito-borne RVF , whose reservoir is also represented by ruminants , One Health efforts in this area should opt for the use of “arthropocidal” molecules, halting both ticks and mosquitoes, rather than merely “acaricidal” products or “insecticidal” ones .Moreover, the role of “companion” animals or non-livestock species, such as dogs and cats, is also critical for certain parasitic zoonoses in Africa. In addition to their involvement in a number of NTDs , these species are also implicated in the epidemiology of several zoonotic geohelminths such as Toxocara spp., Ancylostoma spp. and Strongyloides stercoralis, and cestodes , entailing direct or indirect transmission through an intermediate host . The frequent freeroaming behaviour of dogs and cats, typically in rural milieus across Africa , coupled with the usually poor hygiene and water sanitation of such settings, can particularly favour the spread of these parasitoses and enhance exposure risks in humans and other animal species. In addition, with the size of middle class rising in the continent , ownership of dogs and cats as “pets” may potentially increase in urban areas in the next decades, highlighting the importance of parasite control also in urban and peri-urban sites, where encounters between “owned” and “free-roaming” animals, and their excretions, may occur.

Furthermore, the contribution of wildlife needs also to be considered, either as definitive or intermediate hosts or even reservoirs of zoonotic parasites . Therefore, in order to be fully and durably effective, One Health initiatives tackling parasitic conditions should aim to tackle all final, intermediate, potentially vector and even paratenic or transport hosts involved in life cycles of target aetiological agents. Overlooking even a single host species, wildlife included, can indeed cause the reappearance or impede the elimination tout court of cases of infection or disease in certain other hosts, despite generous control efforts being addressed towards them.Should the One Health approach be envisaged only in the case of zoonotic parasitic or arthropod-borne infections that are shared between humans and animals? This concept paper advocates for a more comprehensive assessment of parasites and vectors in this paradigm. The health of livestock in Africa is indeed undermined by several parasites or arthropods that, although not zoonotic per se, cause major chronic deterioration and productivity losses, being responsible for low body condition scoring, poor protein conversion and, overall, scarce production .

In the case of cattle, for instance, gastrointestinal nematodes, ticks and tick-borne infections and animal African trypanosomiasis are the most important examples to be incriminated in these regards . The productivity losses that they entail are therefore inextricably connected with the continent’s food insecurity, especially considering that the largest bulk of Africa’s food production is used for local consumption . With food insecurity being recognised as a global health challenge , all its major causes in the animal sources should be thoroughly investigated and tackled under the One Health lens. This applies also to animals’ and livestock parasitic infections, given the burden they pose, ultimately, to human sustainment and nutrition. As the OIE puts it, “pathogens of animal origin that are not transmissible to humans, but which have a severe impact on the production of animal protein, should not be neglected either, particularly in developing countries. In fact, they can lead to production losses and a reduction in the available food supply, leading to serious public health problems caused by food shortages and protein deficiencies” .

A potential alternative to the traditional approach is to first establish the seed in tissue culture

The activity of DAHPS was measured at 549 nm. Regarding PAL, it was extracted in 1 mL of 200 mM sodium borate buffer and then evaluated by measuring the production of trans-cinnamic acid at 290 nm. For centuries, Cannabis sativa L. has been widely used around the world for various applications . These days, interest has been focused on medicinal and recreational facets, furthering commercial expansion. With Canada recently adopting the more globally appreciated view of cannabis, there exists an ever evolving, multi-billion-dollar industry focused on vegetative propagation . Despite the reliance on clonal propagation, there is a continual need to germinate seeds to select new elite genotypes, perform pheno-hunting, as well as supporting breeding programs. To select new elite genotypes, plants are started from seed .

During the vegetative phase of growth, a cutting is taken and maintained as a vegetative plant while the seedling is grown to maturity. Once the elite genotypes are selected, the cutting is then used as a source to propagate the clonal line. Maintaining the large population of cuttings during the phenotyping exercise represents a significant cost to producers and leaves the cutting derived mother plants exposed to insects and diseases. To address the issues of insect, disease, and viral infections in mother plants, many producers use plant tissue culture to ensure that they are starting with clean material. Forthis process, nodal segments are disinfected and established in culture, a time consuming and relatively expensive endeavor. Once the seedlings are established and multiplied, micropropagated clones can be transferred into the growth facility and cultivated to maturity to identify elite genotypes. After selecting the elite genotypes, the in vitro parent material would be available for clonal propagation. This approach would greatly reduce the amount of space required for selecting new cultivars and provide a ready source of clean planting material once elite genotypes are identified.

However, this approach requires an effective in vitro seed germination protocol with high germination speed and frequency. An efficient in vitro seed germination system would also support downstream biotechnologies in which seedling-derived tissues are preferred .We previously reported the effect of different types and strengths of media in addition to carbohydrate types and levels as primarily important factors contributing to in vitro cannabis seed germination indices and morphological seedling traits . Our results demonstrated that maximum germination percentage was achieved with 0.43 strength mMS medium and 2.3% sucrose . While the germination rate was over 80%, this was after 40 days of culture. Typically, the cannabis seed germinates within several days in the greenhouse/growth room, suggesting that something during the disinfection process was interfering with subsequent germination. To improve our previous protocol, we hypothesize that optimizing the disinfection protocol and seed scarification would increase the speed and frequency of seed germination. As with most aspects of a tissue culture system, in vitro disinfection is a complex and non-linear process that is affected by numerous factors such as disinfectant and contaminant types and levels, media pH, immersion time, temperature, and theirinteractions .

In the disinfection process, the concentration of disinfectants plays a conflicting dual role relating to contamination frequency and seed viability. Higher disinfectant concentrations generally lead to a greater control over contaminants; however, lower seedling viability is often the trade-off. Therefore, it is necessary to optimize the disinfection process. The disinfection process cannot be represented by a simple stepwise algorithm, especially when the datasets are highly imbalanced and noisy . Therefore, artificial intelligence models combined with optimization algorithms such as a genetic algorithm can be employed as an efficient and reliable computational method to inter-pret, forecast, and optimize this complex system . This strategy has been successfully used for modeling and optimizing different tissue culture systems, including in vitro decontamination, shoot proliferation, androgenesis, somatic embryogenesis, secondary metabolite production, and rhizogenesis . Ivashchuk et al. employed multilayer perceptron and radial basis function as two well-known artificial neural networks for modeling and predicting the effect of different disinfectants and immersion times for Bellevalia sarmatica, Echinacea purpurea, and Nigella damascene explant decontamination. They reported that both algorithms were able to accurately model and predict the disinfection process . In another study, Hesami et al. applied a hybrid MLP and non-dominated sorting genetic algorithm-II for the modeling and optimization of disinfectants and immersion times for chrysanthemum leaf segment decontamination. It was reported that MLP-NSGA-II had a high performance to predict and optimize the system .

Constructive comments from anonymous reviewers were received

In 1991, the Brazilian national and state research institutions in coordination with CIAT, had initiated a 5-year project for breeding cassava in drier tropics and subtropics with funds from the International Fund For Agriculture Development . Cassava germplasm from northeastern Brazil and the north coast of Colombia was initially screened at four semiarid sites in northeastern Brazil, characterized by extended drought for several months, hot weather, and sandy infertile soils with presence of pests and diseases . Some accessions were selected for their broad adap- tation across sites to contribute in a recombination and selection program . Yields of selected clones at 12 months and 18 months after planting demonstrate the high potential of cassava in these drier areas.

Also, some progenies, via hybridization, have been developed and sent to ITTA, Nigeria, for adaptation and selection under drier areas in sub-Saharan Africa . Farmers had participated in evaluating and selecting adapted materials that resulted in rapid acceptance and, consequently, in the release of several improved clones . The research reviewed here on cassava productivity, ecophysiology, breeding, and responses to environmental stresses was conducted in collaboration with a multidisciplinary team at CIAT. Under favorable environments in lowland and mid-altitude tropical zones with near-optimal climatic and edaphic conditions for the crop to realize its inherent potential, cassava is highly productive in terms of root yield and total biological biomass, conferring a competitive advantage over other tropical energy crops. Under stressful environments with extended drought of several months and low-fertility soils, where major cereal and legume crops might fail, cassava produces reasonably well.

This inherent capacity to tolerate complex stresses is supported by several morphological, physiological and biochemical mechanisms and traits, such as long leaf life, tight stomatal control over gas exchange, high photosynthetic potential and extensive fine root systems. Core germplasm was characterized and several clones tolerant to water stress and low-fertility soils were identified to breed for drier areas in Africa and Latin America. Selection for nutrient use efficient shortto-medium cassava was found to be advantageous for soil fertility conservation while retaining yield potential. Modeling predicts the suitability of cassava in globally warming climate versus other food crops, confirming its high level of tolerance . Cassava has high optimum temperature for photosynthesis and growth, and responds positively to elevated CO2 that point to its potential as food, feed and energy crop in tropical and subtropical zones adversely affected by climate changes. Because of its high costs using sophisticated methodology, currentclimate research is still confined within developed temperate zones .

Yet, there is an urgent need to conduct climate research in representative tropical ecosystems where GCMss cenarios predict the worst consequences for agricultural productivity and food security . The use of the Free Air CO2 Enrichment technology in combination with rain shelters which facilitates evaluating interactions of CO2 with soil water status , may further enhance developing improved cassava cultivars adapted to increasing atmospheric CO2. Moreover, temperature influences may be studied under field conditions using the “Temperature Free-Air Controlled Enhancement ” technique, as was recently described and used at U.S. Arid-Land Agricultural Research Center, USDA, Maricopa, Arizona . Developed countries, who are the main polluters of the atmosphere, via excessive carbon emissions, must shoulder the costs of climate research in tropical and subtropical regions. Oil-rich Arabian/Persian Gulf States should take the lead in supporting developing countries to cope with-and-adapt-to consequences of warming climate. Molecular biology technology is also needed with focus on applications into crop improvement.

For example, this technology is useful for genetically transferring simple qualitative traits controlled by one or two genes, as already had been demonstrated by the successful production and use of insect-resistant transgenic commercial crop cultivars containing the soil bacterium, Bacillus thuringiensis genes that produce the toxic Cry proteins. In contrast, quantitative multigenic traits such as tolerance/resistance to compound abiotic-stresses are unlikely to be easily amenable to genetic engineering via inserting few exotic genes. These traits when expressed at the whole organism level are mostly attributed to a range of morphological, anatomical, physiological and biochemical characteristics and mechanisms. So far, modest advances at the experimental levels were recently reported for the use of genetic molecular markers in cassava selection and breeding efforts for developing drought-tolerant cultivars .

Soil is not only the largest feature of the forest, but also is a source of its scent

A serious problem, however, yet lies in the early identification of dispersive soils . In spite of all the knowledge obtained over the years, there is still no fast, simple and dependable mean of conclusively recognizing dispersive soils. Many methods have been suggested including the pinhole, double hydrometer, crumb and chemical tests, individually or in group. These, but, have not always been totally credible and it looks like that the cause sets in the factual testing procedures. The standard testing procedures for the Soil Conservation Service double hydrometer test, the pinhole test, crumb test and chemical analyses have lately been studied and problems/abnormalities identified. Although no discussion concerning these anomalies has been discovered in the literature, the recent testing proposes that many of these deficiencies may have been looked out during past routine investigations. This paper summarizes a proportional study including the testing of three specimen utilizing one standard laboratory test, namely the SCS double hydrometer test and discusses some potential means of conquering the problems identified.

The other tests have been discussed separately. SCS double hydrometer or dispersion soil test has been identified as one of the most suitable tests for classifying dispersive soils. The test assesses the dispersibility of a soil by measuring the natural propensity of the clay fraction to go into annotate in water. The procedure involves the estimation of the percentage of particles in the soil that are finer than 0.005 mm utilizing the standard hydrometer test. A parallel test is also carried out, in which no chemical dispersant is added and the solution is not mechanically excited. The quantity of particles finer than 0.005 mm in the parallel test is explicit as a percentage of this fraction determined in the standard test, which is defined as the dispersion ratio or dispersivity of the soil . Dispersion ratios greater than 50% are observed extremely dispersive, between 30% and 50% are moderately dispersive, between 15% and 30% are a little dispersive and less than 15% are non-dispersive . Similar systems with various limits were used by, and the dispersion test was first described by Volk  as a means of determining the potential dispersive of soils.

The test has since been utilized extensively in this concern with minor modifications. Volk’s test contrasts the weight of soil grains, 0.005 mm or smaller that slaked free when air-dried lumps of soil were soaked in silent distilled water with that of the complete soil. This was shown as the percentage dispersion. The pipette method itself was announced by Middleton in 1930 as a means of determining the erosion potential of a soil. The difference in the methods was that the samples collected in the pipette depend on particles of a maximum diameter of 0.05 mm . Volk’s method was, however, chosen because studies in the southwest of the United States point out that the dispersion of the clay fraction was more significant in assessing the piping potential of soils . The SCS involvement in earth dam construction in the United States reproduces in the 1940’s and early 1950’s. It was during this time that the test procedure was appropriate to utilize a hydrometer to instate a pipette .This study was performed in Sulaimani Governorate to determine the effect of ten land use and clay content on dispersion ratio. The soil samples from 0 – 30 cm depth were collected from different locations. All soil samples were air dried, sieved through a 2 mm physical properties were measured such as particle size distribution by the pipette method, bulk density by Clod method. A single point using water under isothermal condition was measured the according to . Chemical properties were measured like soil organic matter which determined by the Walkley-Black method  and calcium carbonate by titration method. Correlation and regression were used to analyze the relationship between land use and some soil parameters of the samples .

Analysis of variance for complete randomized design was used to compare the influence of the land usage types on the measured soil properties. DUNCAN at P < 0.5 level was used to separate the mean where applicable.The soil texture of the study area was significantly affected by land use. Data obtained in Table 1 showed the variation in sand, silt and clay fraction of the soil. The result shows that the textural class across all the land use types of the study area is different soil texture, indicating the different of parent material. The result is in agreement with . However, over a very long period of time, paedogenesis processes such as erosion, deposition, eluviations, and weathering can change the soil texture.

The results of analysis of income-inequality revealed existence of income inequality

They analysed their data using conventional qualitative content analysis and they found that female-headed households faced many challenges that could become a big threat or an opportunity.A study was conducted to investigate the nature and determinants of income inequality in mountain areas using the case of Uluguru Mountains in Tanzania. Specifically, the study used the cross-sectional research design, income percentile shares, Gini coefficient and Lorenz curves, as well as, the coefficient of variation , to pinpoint the nature of income inequality in the study area using both pooled and disaggregated data. The determinants of income inequality were investigated using the step by step multiple linear regression model. At the 50 percentile, the mean incomes for disaggregated analysis were the highest for farmers with farmland located far from homestead, followed by those of farmers who accessed extension services during the past two years and farmers who were members of community-based financial institutions.

The mean incomes were the lowest for female-headed households, followed by farmers who did not access extension services as well as farmers with farmland located close to homestead. The farmlands located far from homestead were mostly found along the footsteps of the mountains or lowland areas where landholdings were relatively larger allowing for more intensification and crop revenues than the farmlands located in the upper gradients. Membership to community-based financial institutions had the most equalizing effect on income. Unexpectedly however, income inequality amongst farmers who accessed extension services was higher than that of their counterpart farmers who did not access the services. We attribute this to variations in personal household characteristics , and economic characteristics . Overall, crop production was the main source of income in the agroforestry systems of the study area, followed by timber products. The contribution of income from non-farm income generating activities was the lowest but these sources constituted a major income-inequality increasing component in the pooled sample. However, the results of disaggregated analysis showed that “non-farm sources” were decreasing income-inequality for farmers with farmlands located close to homestead, for female-headed households, for farmers who did not access extension services, and for farmers who were members of community-based financial institutions.

This implies that diversification of income sources is an important strategy for reducing income inequality in mountain areas. Accordingly, policies and initiatives that aim to promote diversification of livelihoods are more likely to reduce income inequality in these areas and are therefore recommended. The values of coefficients in our step by step multiple linear regression model suggested that household assets, size of farmland, and age of household head positively influenced household income and household size negatively influenced household income. Our results also suggest that, gender disparity remains one of the key issues to be addressed, and it should be taken into account in formulating future policies, especially those aiming to reduce inequality among populations in mountain areas and thus, improving living standards and well-being of smallholder farmers in these areas. In addition to promoting livelihood diversification, we therefore recommend tailor-made training and farm financing mechanism to help the less resource endowed farmers, including the female-headed households in mountain areas to raise their economic portfolios and social status.This paper is based on a postgraduate research conducted under the Department of Forest and Environmental Economics of the Sokoine University of Agriculture in Tanzania.

The author would therefore wish to extend his sincere gratitude to Ms. Willickister R. Kadigi for allowing her raw data to be used for analysis in this paper, to the former and current heads of the Department of Forest and Environmental Economics at SUA, Prof. Jumanne Abdallah and Dr. Greyson Z. Nyamoga respectively, as well as the other academic staff in the Department for their enormous academic support. My sincere acknowledgements are also due to Mr. Raymond R. Kilenga, the Programme Officer of the Eastern Arc Mountains Conservation Endowment Fund; Ms. Bernadetha Chille, the Principle Forest Officer of the Uluguru Forest Nature Reserve; the respondents and village/hamlet leaders in the study area for their hands of support as well as excellent cooperation and inputs during data collection.

Home gardens allow all family members to be involved in some form or another

The 2007 national census reported a total population of 140,080 of whom 70,967 were men and 69,113 were women; 12,615 or 9.01% of its population were urban dwellers. The majority of the inhabitants are Muslim, with 98.29% and the remaining are follower of Ethiopian Orthodox Christianity. A Reconnaissance survey of the study area was conducted on October 2016 to see whether the area is suitable to meet the objectives stated during that period, overall information on the study area was obtained and representative sampling site were identified by consulting the elders and the residents of the town. The town was divided in to three representative sampling sites for data collection was based on the presence of traditional home garden practices. House holders in shaping and rented houses were purposively excluded since they do not have space to cultivate home garden plants. Therefore only households who have their own compounds and have access to and control over gardens plants were considered for study.

After the domain of the households to be considered for the study is demarcated as stated above sampling frame was made based on the study aims and available budget. According to , the site of the sample depends on available fund,time and other reasons and not necessarily the total population. Hence a total of a 180 households were randomly selected to determine the frequency of home gardens and to identify those types the list of all households that fell in the domain were received from the town residences and workers after which the total number of those households divided by a sample size to determine sampling intervals for each sample site during the random selection. For data collection and analysis 60 home gardens were preferentially selected from houses as pointed out by 11. When recording indigenous knowledge held by certain social groups the choice of key informants for the study was done through available sampling. Accordingly a total of 16 persons which are believed to be knowledgeable persons between the ages of were selected from different sites .Home gardens observations were made using observation checklist having columns of recording homegarden direction, plant diversity, and other important parameters and by laying quadrants in each homegarden.

Semi structured interview was made with systematically selected key informants and with home garden owners in each site during ethno botanical data collection.Questions were used during data collection included local name of the gardens species and purpose of the home gardens grown plants management’s practices. The importance of these home gardens for in-situ conservation of plants diversity and others data related to environmental change indicators. The key informants were selected based on the number of years they live in the area and the states of their homegarden and dependency. They were encouraged to discuss the cultural and ecological knowledge , to identify the plants with their use including the functions of the plants and parts used.A market survey was conducted to record the variety and amounts of food and other home garden plant products produced and supplied to the local market. Plants that have market values in Kombolcha market were identified through observation on the market survey, and interview by interacting with producers, seller, and buyer by using the starter question.Following Ethnobotanical data collection, descriptive statistical methods such as densities, frequencies, relative densities, Shannon and wiener index for species diversity and Sorensen’s index of similarities were used to analyze the data collected in the sites. Vegetation data collection carried out according to Whittaker 1993 principle.

According to the observation made out of 180 household 128 practiced home gardening in case of spatial arrangement of the homegardens 60 gardens were found in the back yard of their houses where as 18 were side gardens in some cases the gardens found on both front and side or side and back sides Table 1. Distinct variations in site diversity and composition were encountered increasingly with increasingly in holding site. As the site of home gardens increase, as diversity of plant species increases. Home gardens on the study area are composed of trees, shrubs, herbs, and climbing plants in different strata. They consist of trees approximately 10 – 15 m on the upper strata, fruit crops 1 m to 10 m middle strata and herbaceous plants up to 1 m from the ground strata.Local peoples have developed a general home garden structure with considerable diversity and flexibility that facilitates production of the major livelihood necessities. They have managed to select crops that are co-adapted and that give multiple benefits. Home garden are found surrounding the home of the owner where he/she gets daily requirement of fruit, vegetables, fodder, medicinal plants and some plants with cultural values. According to the information during semi structured interview of homegarden owners of home gardens in the study area most of them grow vegetables during the rainy season of the year and also in the time of water scarcity byfetching water and watering home garden cultivated plants at least twice a week, as it was mentioned by some of the owners of home gardens continuous production of plants for the house hold benefits, maintains the ecological system and makes the gardens sustainable.

Planting shrubs near the homegarden in erosion prone areas were management’s practices done by owners of home gardens in the study area. Home gardens were near house hold or further away 2 – 4 minutes walking distance with living houses in some study sites to get more cultivable land for home gardening and cope up with shortage of land. Home gardens could be observed with open areas, fenced or semi-fenced. Live fences with trees and shrubs to protect home garden species from predators were more frequently observed activity as management’s practices.It allows for greater participation by female members. According to , link between the local communities and plant resource is essential for conservation and as a part of biodiversity conservation.Homegardens are typically populated by a wide Varity of plants, varying from small herbs total trees. From this study 78 species which are under 35 families were recorded from 18 homegardens surveyed . The representative families and number of species under each family were found families like Solonaceae, and Rutaceae ranks top of the list 6 species each followed by Fabaceae and Lamiaceae consistes of 5 specieseach and Asteraceae, Poaceae, Rosaceae and Brassicaceae represented by 4 species each.