Diversity, Famine, Food security, Fruit, Nutrition, Wild fruits,

The study was carried out in Adiarkay, Debark and Dejen districts in a context where wild fruit bearing species suffer notable disregard from research and development strategies, and consequently the basic information remains verbally with the local people without being adequately documented. Free-listing, individual interviews, focus group discussions, direct observation and pair-wise ranking were used to glean and evaluate data. Altogether, 46 species make up the wild fruits domain of the study area. Each site and district appeared to have its own cultural domain, and salient and favorite species. There is a high correspondence between highly preferred and salient species. Aggregating free-list data to solicit a cultural domain of the highest stratum (study area) was found to highly underestimate the domains of lower strata (districts and sites). There exists a wealth of knowledge about wild fruit species, especially on the part of the youth, shedding light on the perpetuation of indigenous knowledge. Future studies on wild fruits in the area needs to capitalize on species identified to have high consent and should make use of informants identified as having high species competency.

No abstract

The study was undertaken in three districts of Amhara region to assess the extent and purpose of integration of wild indigenous woody perennial fruit bearing species in the agricultural landscapes, appraise their species composition and diversity and identify factors holding back farm integration. Data were gathered through interviews administered to 90 randomly chosen household heads, and fruit trees census in each and every plot of the informants. Species diversity was found to be low and vary by farm, land use type and site. Altogether 17 species were recorded in the agricultural settings. Species retention in the different land use types appears to be governed by species relative importance and compatibility with annual crops, where farm edges recorded a higher ethno-ecological importance score. Nevertheless, as it stands now fruit bearing species are retained primarily for non-fruit utilities. Free availability, land shortage, slope and altitude as well as disgrace feelings are among the major factors holding back farm integration and diversity of indigenous species for fruit production. Should they are additionally exploited for their fruits proper, there is a critical need to raise recognition and awareness at the rural grassroots level and instill knowledge about the food values, and assist in appropriate tree management techniques and inter-cropping regimes as well as accessing markets.

No abstract