The medicinal plants species, parts used, preparation and application methods were recorded . Dwellers and traditional healers believe that growing medicinal plants in home gardens is having a doctor at home. The ease of the use and the affordability makes it popular to be planted in every garden. The power to heal almost every human health disorder, animal disorder and crop pest problems also another importance raised during the key informants interview.According to the key informants discussion and the response from the questionnaire among the functional groups multipurpose tree species are one of thegroups. Plant species with various uses such as construction, furniture and equipment, fire wood, charcoal, shade tree and others were grouped under multipurpose functions. In this group the most dominant family was mirtaceae comprising of 2 species . The most dominant tree found in the homegarden were Eucalyptus camaldulensis and Eucalyptus globules due to the wide range of use it gives to the society. According to the key informants other tree species were not planted rather the plants grew by themselves without the intervention of human but the two dominant species become dominant due to high degree of plantation takes place in the area for their wide range of use.According to market survey that done on kombolcha town during the study almost all study sites the road access enables farmers to produce cash crops.
The most marketed home gardens species listed below are ranked based on the observation on the market, and from the information collected through key informant’s interview and the rank collected from the questionnaire . Chatwas considered as number one marketed species in the town were as other vegetables are taken the rank from two up to five. Even if market survey and economic valuation of homegarden products aren’t the outcome of this research it is clearly observable that the cash crop in the area is highly dominated by chat. This species will benefit the farmer’s a lot better income than the rest of the homegarden products. A kilo of chat coasts from 1500 – 2500 Eth birr with equivalent currency of 65 – 100 USD. The variety of chat determines the price of the chat.Home gardens contain many types of species and the genetic diversity which serves not only as a source of food, fuel wood, medicinal plant, construction materials and income in many countries around the world but also they are very important for in-situ conservation of plant genetic resources. There are different plants with different life forms for different uses planted in homegardens of the study area. These trees are conserved by local communities for their use as different functional category. The study site as a site for in situ conservation consists of number of plant diversity, such as wild, cultivated and indigenous for subsistence use and income generating of the household. Among these plant species, Catha edulis and Coffea arabica are the frequently maintained cash crop.
According to Eprem G et al. 2016 the diversity of plants in eastern hararge is high the coffee varieties are decaffeinated that they need conservation. commented that the Ethiopian homegardens house many indigenous taxa of crops as clones are found As the data gathered through questionnaire indicates that from the total of 128 homegarden users 117 agreed that the trees are useful to them that they don’t want to remove them from their ground. The rest of the respondents responded that they didn’t remove the trees from their homegarden due to the fact that they believe that they will not do any harm in their farm yard. Key informants interview reviles that they don’t clear the trees and shrubs from their filed for their use. As key informants response most of the medicinal plants in the forest were extinct from their natural habitat due to illegal forest clearing so it is becoming difficult to find medicine that they save those trees and shrubs in their farm yard as shed or fence plants. The major problem raised as a challenge for conservation was youth attitude towards medicinal, aromatic and useful plants is low Figure 2.The key informant’s interview revealed that the plants in the homegarden belonging to 35 families which supports the assertion that homegardens are valuable sources of plant agrobiodiversity. It was found that food plants constituted 25 %, of the recordedhomegarden species which is in agreement with findings of studies conducted in Sabata town of Ethiopia and in Diniio Gade homegarden South easte of Ethiopia where the most frequently maintained crops in the homegardens of Kombolcha town were reported to be those that serve as source of food.
Even if the uses of homegardens is not comparable and complementary with crop fields in many areas of Ethiopia, homegardens have been considered primitive and less productive and less attention has been given . The homegardens in Kombolcha district facing less attraction as compared to the main farm yard due to the same reason mentioned above. This has resulted in loss of the traditional home garden management systems, loss of taxa and indigenous knowledge. Similar result and implication has been reflected by according to the research bacterial wilt disease has also played its own part in destroying very useful ENSET varieties it was due to loss of indigenous knowledge. The role of home gardens in generating income to families in Ethiopia has also been reported by different authors . Focus to grow few cash crops by neglecting other beneficial crops could reduce the diversity of species managed in homegardens. Simple preference ranking exercise conducted on seven marketed homegardens plants in Kombolcha District with the highest frequencies and relative frequencies of occurrence revealed Catha edulis as the most valued marketed homegarden plant, followed by Lycopersicum esculentum and Solonum tuberosum . The stimulant plant Catha edulis has been reported as one of five homegarden plants that generate the highest income in Kombolcha town of Ethiopia whichseems similarly reported by . The price variability and the seasonality of coffee and the high demand of chat in most of the country has been a a great problem for coffee production and it is making the farmers to displacing coffee shrubs by chat. According to it is reported that the fast expansion of Xanthosoma sagittifolium become a potential threat to Enset. For maintenance, the diversity of homegarden species in Kombolcha Town depends on various indigenous management activities. and confirmed the same results. Homegarden owners of Welaiyta and Bonga communities sites developed indigenous knowledge about the preparation, classification and cultivating of E. ventricosum. With the same manner management practices need to overtake in Kombolcha town to save some of the medicinal and aromatic plant species from extinction.