South Welo alld 1I0rth Shew{1 are the cellter for the diversity of Sorghum bicolor. S.orghum isrncultivated ill close association with oil crops maillly because of their com billed uses ill therncultural feeding system of local people. The presence of multipwpose sorghum lalldraces inrnthe area have played a significant role for oil crop species diversity and their ill siturnconservation, as each oil crop has its own unique domain in its combined use with sorghum.rnThe companionship of sorghum and oil crops is multidimensional, which includes multiplerncropping practices at the field level, multi-component food values. Their companionship isrndeep rooted to the level of society's traditional beliefs alld sacrifices and cultural life.rnGuizotia abyssinica alld Sesamum indicum are the most important oil crops of the area withrnstrongest companionship with sorghum both at the field level and home level. The strongerrnthe companionship of a given oil crop with sorghum at home level, the stronger therncompanionship at field level too. This result is based lipan (i) the interviews with localrnfarmers (both males and females) with heterogeneous age groups, and (ii) field surveyrntogether with local farmers and the in situ team in order to collect data on the croppingrnpat/ems and degree of companionship of sorghum and edible oil crops. DifferentrnAgromOlphological traits ji-om si?, oil crops were analyzed for the plllpose of obtaining thernlevel of variability among populations of each oil crop and correlation between traits.rnAnalysis of variance (ANOVA) and correlation analysis were conducted for quantitativerntraits, while Shannon's diversity index analysis was conducted for qualitative traits, to see thernpotential genetic diversity of these oil crops. Capsule length, number of capsules per plantrnand number of seeds per capsule are important for high yield in Sesamum indiculII. Numberrnof branches per plant and number of heads per plant are the main traits that determine yieldrnin Guizotia abyssinica. In Carthamus tinctorius, number of capitulum per plant, which is arnprimal'), trait to determine yield, did not show significant correia lion with other traits studied.rnIn Brassica carinata, number oj primm)' branches per plant, plant height and nlllnber ofrnseeds per capsule show significant positive correlation between themselves implying thatrnthese traits might be important agronomic traits for high yield. Shannon diversity estimatesrnrevealed that more than 74% oj the total variation is due to within populations or area, for allrnspecies analyzed. Multilocus enzyme electrophoresis (MLEE) was used to assess genetic variability in twenty inrn,rnsitu conserved populations and twenty ex situ conserved populations of Guizotia abyssinca.rnMLEE analysis at four enzyme loci scores 19 alleles. All 19 alleles were recorded in both inrnsitu and ex situ populations. Dendrograms constructed based on Nei's genetic distance valuesrnshow that there is no clear differentiation between the two groups. All four loci werernpolymO/phic and characterized by significant heterozygote deficiency (P