TO LIVE WITH ENSET: A CASE FROM THE GAMO HIGHLANDS OF SOUTHERN ETHIOPIA

Abstract

Enset (Ensete Ventricosum) is a perennial crop that feed over 10 million people in the Southern Ethiopia and not known outside Ethiopia as food crop. This plant is related to banana (Mussa) family and both the pseudostem and corm are pulped for food (kocho) and fiber. Many researchers have conducted investigations on the production, utilization, and management of enset in the SNNPRS. However, all of the researches on enset to date have focused on specific aspects of cultivation rather than looking at socio-cultural contexts. Thus, the main objective of the study is to investigate the existing, socio-cultural values of enset in Gamo highland of southern Ethiopia. The location is the Zollo kebele of the Gamo Highlands. The fieldwork conducted used different types of data collection: field observation, photography, in-depth interviews, focus group discussions, and use of available documents. Enset as one of other farming product it is cultivated by the farmers the whole year. The unique style of enset farming in the Gamo Highlands was developed over countless generations, shaped by the local landscape, climate and lifestyle of the people. The traditional enset farming in the study area includes planting suckers, managing the overall life cycle, identifying different landraces, harvesting and processing it. The study identified unique enset human interaction among Zollo people. Enset play vital role for the existence of different social and cultural values of Zollo people. At the end, the case study identifies major challenges to enset farming in the Gamo highlands, which threaten its traditional role as a means to cope with the vicissitudes of life. This includes enset diseases, shrink of enset farming land and lack of organic fertilizer or animal dung. Increasing the number livestock in the community and taking appropriate interventions on preventing enset disease is recommended to ensure continuation of the enset farming on which the local food need is mostly relying.