Yam landrace diversity and distribution in Basketo and Dera Malo Districts, Southwest Ethiopia

Smallholder farmers grow diverse crop landraces in their fields which contribute to the capacities of agricultural systems to adapt to environmental changes through maintaining broad genetic variations of crops, and there by allowing evolution of crops to continue. This study, therefore, was conducted on yam landrace diversity and distribution in two districts in South West Ethiopia, namely Basketo and Deramalo districts of which eight yam growing communities (four from each district) were included with the purpose of finding out the diversity and distribution of yam farmers’ landraces on cultivation in the study area. 248 yam farmer informants were selected for collecting data through semi-structured interviews, focus group discussions, and yam landrace count on the bases of field observations. A total of 25 yam varieties were recorded with a mean of 8 at a household level. Invariably in the eight study communities, most of the varieties were cultivated in small areas by few households, depicting serious genetic erosion of yams in the communities. There was also a significant difference among the study sites in the mean yam landrace richness and diversity at 95% level of significance (p<0.05). In addition, the study showed that there is a trend of gradual withdrawal of the cultivation of some yam landraces due to various reasons. Hence, interventions that align individuals’ and society’s interests to maintain the viability of on-farmconservation of yam landraces may be needed.