Economic Importance Of Wild Edible Plants In Shabe Sombo District, Jimma Zone, Oromia Regional State, Southwest Ethiopia

Abstract

The study was undertaken in Shabe Sombo District, Jimma Zone, Oromia Regional State and designed to fill the knowledge gap on economic Importance of Wild edible plants. Wild edible plants are species that are not cultivated or domesticated but are native to their natural wild habitat and used as food sources. The main objective of the study was to assess economic importance of wild edible plants in the study area. A purposive sampling method was employed to select seven smallest administrative units (Ganda) based on utilization of their wild edible plants. Three hundred seventy two informants were also selected randomly from the village according to the number of household heads by using simple random sampling. The majority of respondents were in the age class of above 51 (46%). In comparison of educational status, non-educated respondents possess much knowledge of WEPs. From the total of 372 informants, 196 (52.7%) reported that their knowledge of wild food plants was transferred through observation, and oral history. The data collection on wild edible plant species were carried out from April to May, 2022. Data collecting tools were semi-structured interview, focus group discussions, and guided field walks with informants. Microsoft Excel spreadsheet was employed for organizing some ethnobotanical data. Also, the frequency, table, percentage and graphs were used for data presentation. Different results were recorded in the study area. Thirty seven species of wild edible plants in 22 families and 30 genera were recorded in the study area. Rutaceae, Moraceae and Mrytaceae families were among the most commonly consumed families of WEPs. Direct matrix ranking of eleven most popular multi-purpose wild food plant species ranked first Fagaropsis angolensis. Among the total of wild edible plant species recorded in the study area, the most widely used plant parts were fruits, which accounts for 26(70.3%) and the least were seed and stem. WEPs were dominantly consumed as fruits (ripe fruits freshly eaten as snacks) and cooked leafy vegetables with common foods. The high tree plants habit were documented in the study area followed by herbs and others. All the collected wild edible plants were available in different seasons in the study area. The highest number of leafy vegetables and fruits were collected during the rainy season. The result revealed that wild edible plants used as an economical value for local people by many direction. The expansion of coffee plantation, charcoal, and fire wood collection and destroying of WEP for construction materials were the major factors that affect WEPs in the study area.