Prevalence and Socio-Economic Impacts of Parthenium hysterophorusL. , on Agricultura lProducts:TheCase of Adama Woreda, Oromia Region.

Abstract

ParthemumhysterophorusL .(Asteraceae)isaninvasiv eweedo fpastures,marginallan dand agriculturalfieldsparticularlyi ndevelopingworld.Variousproblemsareposedbytheweed t ohumanhealth,agriculture,livestoc kproductionandbiodiversity.Hencethestudywas carriedoutt oevaluatethePrevalenceandSocio-EconomicImpactso fP.hysterophorusL. , onAgriculturalProducts.10kebeleswererandoml yselectedamong37kebelesi ntheAdama Woredat ostudytheprevalenceandimpac to fpartheniumweedonagriculturalproduct.A tota lo f9quadrats( 1m^areaeach)fro meachkebeleswereselectedbyusingstratified rando msampling.Toinvestigatethesocio-economicimpac to ftheplantatota lo f225 householdswererandoml yselectedandthepreparedquestionnaireswerealsodistributed amongthehouseholds.Theallelopaticeffecto fP.hysterophorusonTef f(Eragostisteff). PotatoandOnion{Alliumcepa)wereevaluatedo npartheniumcompost.Thep Handsoi l moisturei nbothpartheniumboundedandnon-partheniumboundedsoi lwererandoml ytake n fro meachstudyari aandtakent olaboratory .Thedatacollectedfro mquestionnairesshowed significantprevalenceo fpartheniumweedi nAdulalahatie(100%) ,Merebemermersa (96.67%) ,andKobdlut o(52.33% )kebeles.Thefieldstudyshowedsignificantprevalenceo f theweed(0.48) .Theplanthadsignificanteffectonlivestoc kproductsquality,agriculture productivity ,humanhealthandotherbiodiversity.Theallelopaticstudyconductedon PartheniumcompostshowedthatPotatohasbetterheight70.66c mandyiel d10.63k.g, whereastheheightandyiel do ftef f65.33cmand0.46k.gandtheonion49.6cm,and4.04k.g wereaffectedduringtheentirecroppingseason.Hencei tcoul dbeconcludedthat,the Partheniumcompostcontainsallelopathiceffectwhichcouldaffectthemajoragronomic characteristicssuchasyiel dandheight.