Integrated GIS and Survey Approaches in Assessing Diversity and Sustainability in Agricultural Landscapes in Tigray, Northern Ethiopia.

Diversity in farming systems has received increasing attention in recent years as a way of promoting sustainable agriculture throughout the world. In this paper relationships between diversity of crops, trees and shrubs (further called: plant diversity) at the farmers’ field level and physical environment, soil erosion, crop production characteristics, farmers’ wealth parameters, and proximity to urban area and road in Tigray, northern Ethiopia are examined. Soil erosion was considered as the main indicator of unsustainability. The objectives were to identify spatial and non-spatial factors affecting biodiversity and sustainability. Total 188 farmers were interviewed and their fields examined for plant and crop diversity. GIS buffering and proximity analyses of urban area and road were carried out. Plant diversity increased significantly with altitude, soil class and number of crop selection criteria, while this diversity declined as farmers’ access to credit and chemical fertiliser use increased. Plant and crop diversity were positively correlated with number of weed species and number of insect pests per farm but negatively with soil erosion class. Soil erosion was positively associated with fertilizer use and negatively with plant diversity and numbers of animals per household, as indigenous plants and landraces were purposefully maintained to feed the animals. Proximity of farms to urban area and roads negatively affected biodiversity (plant and crop diversity) in agricultural landscapes. The result suggest that indigenous farming practices in mosaic agricultural landscape are associated with higher plant diversity and sustainability of agroecosystems in Tigray, Ethiopia.