Assessing Gendered Impacts of a Changing Climate on Pineapple Farmers in Kayunga District

Abstract

Pineapple (Ananascomosus) is among the important horticultural crops in Uganda grown in the central, east and western parts of the country. However, pineapple production fluctuates with changes in weather conditions, given that Uganda’s agriculture is rain-fed. These fluctuations would translate into gendered impacts given that climate change has been shown to impact men and women differently. This study explored the gendered impacts of climate change among smallholder pineapple farmers in Kayunga district with the objectives to: i) determine the trend in rainfall and temperature, ii) identify the gendered climate change adaptation strategies among smallholder pineapple farmers and iii) examine the gendered impacts of climate change on smallholder pineapple farmers. Rainfall and temperature data from Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellites for a 30 year period i.e. 1989-2019 with a spatial resolution of 1° x 1° was obtained from NASA POWER. Structured questionnaires were used to collect primary data from smallholder pineapple farmers (selected using simple random sampling i.e. Purposive sampling and proportionate sampling technique was used to select farmers who participate in pineapple growing and eliminate those who grow other crops like banana, cassava and many others, multi-stage sampling helped to select farmers who had pineapple at the same stage of growth to participate in this research, selective sampling was used to choose pineapple farmers on small-scale for the study to access on climate change impacts and adaptation measures. and data analyzed using descriptive statistics. Mann-Kendall test was used to examine trends in rainfall and temperature. The results from Mann-Kendall tests indicated significant trends in both rainfall and temperatures in Kayunga district. The majority (89% male and 81% female) of the smallholder pineapple farmers had attained certain level of education. Female smallholder pineapple farmers perceived more impacts of climate change compared to their male counterparts. According to results climate change led to reduced yields, increased pests, increased disease incidence and decrease in sweetness as reported by all females (100%) and the least impacts reported by 88% females was poor appearance and stunted growth. Reduced yield was the leading climate change impact as reported by 89% of the males and the least impact reported by 51% of the males was decrease in soil fertility. Results also showed that female smallholder farmers mostly use adaptation measures like mulching and change of planting dates as reported by 80% of the women, and the least measure being diversification to other non-farming activities as reported by 0% of the women. Planting trees is the leading measure used by male pineapple farmers as reported by 92% of the males and the least being change of planting dates as reported by 19% of the males. While smallholder pineapple farmers have tried to develop different adaptation measures, they have faced various challenges with the biggest challenge reported by 76% of the male respondents being limited information about weather and climate and limited skills being the least reported by 21% of the male respondents. The female respondents reported that their biggest challenge was limited funds (94% of females) and the least being land disputes as reported by 4 3% of the females.