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"Yushania alpina known as highland bamboo is a perennial, multipurpose and a fast growing plant that supports local livelihoods in many ways. However, for long its uses have been limited to traditional applications. Although bamboo has quit high distribution and widely utilized by large number of local communities in Ethiopia, little baseline information on its livelihood support and domestication status exist for several areas. The objectives of this study were to investigate the role of the highland Bamboo (Yushania alpina) in the livelihoods of the rural community and the process of its domestication in Bule district of Gedeo Zone, SNNP Region. The study used combination of methods to achieve the set objectives. The socio-economic survey involved formal and informal interviews and observations. On farm, bamboo stock was assessed using farm level inventory. For socio-economic data collection, formal (questionnaire) survey was administered on 100 respondents after stratification of the respondents into three wealth categories (rich, medium, and poor). The respondents were selected from three peasant associations (PAs); those PAs were purposefully selected from among the 29 villages within the district. This selection was based principally on accessibility and abundance of bamboo resources, use and marketing history. To assess the bamboo stocks at farm-level as indicators of the extent of domestication, six sample households were selected from each wealth class under each PAs and their bamboo stands were assessed. The results showed that the aggregated (i.e. across wealth category and PAs) contribution of bamboo to the gross household income is found to be only 5.6% of the total, which is 14 fold less than the income from agriculture. The income generated from bamboo ranks third in importance as sources of household income. Furthermore, the contribution from bamboo to household income varied significantly (P<0.05) across wealth category and among the PAs. Bamboo is used for variety of traditional applications include construction, fencing, fodder, household furniture, fuelwood and as cash source. Almost 93% of households have been started bamboo cultivation on their own land and waste land. Among these, almost above the average respondents (71% of the respondents) had inherited their bamboo stands from parents. The major push factors for cultivation/domestication in their order of importance are: increasing bamboo use for different household purposes, income generation and depletion of bamboo in natural stand. In conclusion, promotion, training and market facilitation for better economic incentive from bamboo may win increased local people participation bamboo cultivation, which may ultimately lead to better conservation and utilization of bamboo." |
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