Economic Attributes of “Ensete ventricosum” Production for the Farming Communities in Wolaita and Kembata Zones of South and Central Ethiopia

Enset plays a vital role in providing both marketable and non-marketable goods and services for farming communities in South and Central Ethiopia. Recognizing the key attributes of enset production and leveraging scientific knowledge is essential for maximizing the resource’s potential and enhancing community welfare. This study aims to identify factors that affect marginal attributes of its production and estimate value of the economic goods and services of enset production. Using a cross-sectional survey with multistage sampling techniques, the study identified several significant economic benefits associated with enset production, including food, feed, fuel, medicine, fertility enhancement, soil moisture conservation, input of construction materials, fences and household items and soil and water conservation measures. The study found that the annual value of live enset and its processed three major products Kotcho, Bulla, and fiber amounted to 41.61 million and 3.79 billion Ethiopian birr, respectively. The feed, wrapping, income and cook benefits of the commodity’s estimated to be 171.9Billion Birr annually. Out of these additional attributes, feed value take the lion share (85%).The preferences of attributes varied across districts and households. The regression results revealed that marginal attributes of enset for food, feed, biodiversity, fertility, windbreak, wrapping and social cohesion is defined as a function of enset area, its source of harvest, family size, distance to market and farmer training centre characteristics of the commodity producers. The study identified key attributes of Enset production including food, feed, wrapping, biodiversity, social cohesion, land rehabilitation (fertility, moisture, windbreak, soil and water conservation) and fuel benefits that calls for immediate and long term research and development intervention. These findings underscore the critical importance of enset and emphasize the urgent need for strong policy and institutional support to ensure optimal utilization and sustainable development. The finding also illustrated that prompting Enset farming is inducing climate smart agriculture, provoking gender mainstreaming, assuring food and feed security.