| dc.description.abstract | Organic farming refers to a management system that emphasizes the use of fertilizers of organic origin and it‟s a better alternative for mitigating environmental degradation and climate change.Assessing the farmers‟ attitudes towards adoption of organic farming techniques is essential so the study is going to determine the;existing organic farming techniques, the perceptions of the factors influencing adoption of organic farming,the challenges of practising organic farming and the farmer‟s attitudes towards organic farming in Wakiso district. The study was conducted in four villages: Buso, Buwali, Magere-Kito and Gayaza Lutete. Overall, 120 farming household farmers were selected randomly.Employed a cross sectional survey to collect data. An open ended questionnaire was used to obtain data on four sub-divided sections that is farmer‟s demographic data,existing organic farming techniques practised, farmers‟perceptions of factors influencing adoption of organic farming and farmers attitudes towards organic farming and challenges faced by farmers. Data was analysed using software SPSS and descriptive statistics such as percentages were obtained. The study indicated that the majority (83%) of the farmers practiced organic farming while 17% of them practised conventional farming. Organic farmers practised organic farming techniques such as, agroforestry, cover cropping, crop diversity, water harvesting, mulching, manuring and compositing, crop rotation, poultry, piggery, livestock, live fencing, biological pest control and fallowing. The study further revealed there are both physical (climate and land) and human (food, experience, labour, capital, infrastructure, market, extension services and education) perceptions of factors influencing adoption to organic farming. Whereas most of the challenges reported in the study are related to production and physical problems that were faced by the farmers, these included low yields, tiresome/hectic work, pests and diseases, labour intensive,time consuming, bad climatic conditions, limited land, poor transport, limited market, decomposition process of manure takes longer, shortage of water, limited labour, theft and land grabbing. Majority (97%) of the farmers agreed that practising organic farming is useful for recycling wastes, 88% of the farmers agreed that using synthetic farm inputs is harmful to the environment and a total of forty three percent agreed that organic farm products is more expensive compared to conventional farm products.There‟s need to improve and create more awareness among the farmers on extension services to enable farmers learn about more on various practices regarding organic farming. | en_US |
