Traditional Agroforestry Practice, Management and Determinants in Central Zone of Tigray, Ethiopia

Traditionally, farmers have been practicing incorporation of different types of trees and shrubs with crops as well as animals in their farmland which is denoted as agroforestry. Such indigenous knowledge and practice have been the basis for scientific improvement and adoption of better land management option worldwide. This study was done with an objective of characterizing agroforestry management and determinants of traditional agroforestry expansion in Tigray. A purposive sampling was used to select peasant association based on their potential availability of agroforestry practices. A total of 152 household were selected and semi-structured questionnaires were used to collect data pertaining to traditional agroforestry systems in the region. The collected data were analyzed using SPSS version 20. Logistic regression model was applied to analyse the determinants for the farmers on expansion of agroforestry practice. The local farmers had highly preferred the indigenous trees while most of the farmers used wildlings only. The study found that homestead farm size and total number of livestock have impacted a positive and significant influence (5% level) to maintain and manage multipurpose tree species. Education is another factor that has positively impacted on homestead agroforestry (10% significance level) while in scattered agroforestry practice land size, marital status, and awareness had also impacted positively (5% significance) and, theft and distance of the crop land from the home station had affected negatively (significant at 5% level). This study concludes farmers are managing multipurpose trees based on the values of trees for crop production, animal fodder, wood product and integration of the traditional and modern agroforestry practices is needed.