the diversity and abundance of weed species in koloin parish ngora district uganda

Description

Low agricultural output systems rely exclusively on among other factors, weed abundance and diversity in community lands. Information on the abundance and diversity of such weeds is vital in improving agricultural production and managing biodiversity in farming landscapes. I randomly observed and selected three plots for both agricultural lands and grazing areas. I formed a line transect of 100m long across each plot. Along each transect, quadrants of 5×5m2 at an interval of 1m to determine the percentage cover of each weed species that were found in the quadrant. I repeated the procedure for three plots for both agricultural farms and grazing lands. I found out that there were 26 diverse weed species in all plots of both agricultural farms and grazing lands with agricultural farms having the highest species richness as compared to the grazing lands. I used percentage cover as a measure of determining the abundance and I found out that setaria verticailla and digitaria ternate had the highest percentages with 44.3% and 26.1% respectively, whereas cuscuta casperatus had the lowest percentage cover of 0.7%. The objective of the study was to document the status of the abundance and diversity of weed flora in koloin parish as a basis for designing better interventions for sustainable weed control. This study documented weeds that affect koloin parish and determined their relative abundances. The study revealed the existence of high diversity among weeds with differentiated relative abundance. This and detailed communal cultural knowledge, form a basis of the improvement of weed management as well as conservation of biodiversity in koloin parish species