Agricultural Reviews

Agroforestry is a kind of land use system that has been practiced since long in many parts of the world. Even if agroforestry is contributing a lot for the farmers, no study has been conducted which acknowledges the socio-economic importance of agroforestry practices in Harari regional state. Therefore, this may create a problem to expand and adapt the practices to another area for the cope and mitigate climate changes and achieve food security.

The study used descriptive statistics to analyze the data. It ascertained the role of agroforestry practices in Harari regional state. A sample of 350 farmers was interviewed and selected using two-stage random sampling techniques.

The results showed that 100% of the sample respondents practiced agroforestry as a land use for income source, shade, soil improvement, fodder, firewood, construction material, medicinal purposes etc. The components of the agroforestry system adopted by the local community were pulse, root, cereal crops and vegetables. Khat, Eritia, Acacia, Cordial, Zeziphus were the fodder species used. 78.57% of the respondents used a stallfeeding technique to feed their animals. The respondents obtained annual income of 32,199.16 Ethiopian birrs on average. In general, the agroforestry system helps the local communities to diversify their income, fulfill animal feed and cope with and mitigate climate change. To sustain the local people with the climate change, decision-makers and researchers should give more attention to the preferred agroforestry species.