Abstract:
Plant propagating is both a science and an art that can contribute in food security and provide a
lifetime of challenges and opportunities to learn more about this fascinating craft, or a basic
knowledge of it. Medicinal and horticulturally important species are mostly reproduced by
asexual methods of plant propagations to multiply their exact copy of selected clonal varieties
even if the sexual propagation method has also practiced for different plants. This can be done
naturally for those plants, which are propagating, by specialized organs or by human intervention
for targeted propagation purposes. The profile preparation study was conducted in Ankober
districts of North Shewa zone. The specialized plant organs are those plant parts which have used
for storage of reserves and reproduction purposes. They reproduce by dividing and separating the
organs from their mother plants and have propagated to produce new clonal plants. Propagation
by division is a form of plant propagation in which a group of plants or plant parts are cut or torn
apart which each part of the divided plant contains one or more of the roots of the plant and a
part of the stem of one or more stems. The key activities done during the entire work were
identifying the appropriate plant and its parts that used for propagation and selection of
appropriate propagation methods for each respective plant species selected for this study. In this
plant profile preparation, the selected plant species (Colocasia esculenta, Manihot esculenta,
Ipomaea batatas, Zingiber officinale, Vitis vinifera and Ensete ventricosum) were considered and
their detail theoretical profile and practical propagation strategies are identified. These methods
were applied for economically and medicinally important plant species as sweet potato by slips,
vine and Cassava by cuttings, Ginger and Colocasia by rhizome, and Enset by sucker. Among
the selected plant species Colocasia esculenta, Ipomaea batatas, and Ensete ventricosum were
found to be very simple and can be scaled in to individual farmers, developmental agents (DA),
other agricultural sectors and research centers. The propagation methods and sample products are
very initiating that could contribute to the food security program of the country. Thus, the
practice done in Ankober district of Debre Birhanu University project site is recommended to be
scaled up in to the agricultural sectors and other aspects of the profile as disease and pest
management related issues require further studies and practical application in pilot forms.
