School of Forestry, Environmental and Geographical Sciences (SFEGS)

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Browsing School of Forestry, Environmental and Geographical Sciences (SFEGS) by Subject "Adaptation"
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    Assessment of awareness and uptake of ecosystem-based adaptation practices among crop cultivators of Bujenje county, Masindi district
    (Makerere University, 2022-11-22) Talemwa, Justus
    This study assessed awareness and uptake of ecosystem-based adaptation practices among crop cultivators of Bujenje County. The study specifically i) evaluated existing ecosystem-based adaptation practices; ii) assessed the socio-economic determinants and barriers to the uptake of ecosystem-based adaptation practices; and iii) assessed gender differences in ecosystem-based adaptation practices among crop cultivators in Bujenje County, Masindi district. A household survey was conducted using a questionnaire where by 100 respondents were involved and the data analyzed using percentages, frequencies and ranks in spss. Results showed that most of the respondents were females taking 52% of the respondents, mostly in age of 25 to 35 years, and most of the respondents had attained primary education, and most of the households had members between 5 to ten members. This study concluded that i) the female were the most observed to be involved in the uptake of Ecosystem Based Adaptations practices compared to the male. ii) Primary level of education and cultural forms were the most observed ways of sensitization to the people about EBA practices. iii) There was generally a low number of the youth or young people who were involved in the uptake of EBA practices. I therefore recommended that i) there is need to sensitize farmers based on special groups about the EBA practices that is more so the male and the young people. ii) There should be financial support to the farmers during the uptake of the EBA practices that are generally expensive to engage in. iii) there should be organization of informal education programs aimed at sensitizing people about EBA practices.
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    Assessment of education needs for climate change adaptation among farmers of Mbale district
    (Makerere University, 2021-02) Nakumiza, Bridget
    In Africa, agriculture is largely rain fed and therefore vulnerable to the impacts of climate change. This is through the frequent and prolonged dry spells, drought, floods and increased incidences of pests and disease. In order for farmers to adapt effectively, they need to be knowledgeable on how to deal with these impacts and also change their attitudes to effectively adapt and cope with climate change. To be able to do this, it is important to establish the climate change knowledge capacity needs that farmers have so as to design locally appropriate interventions. The objectives of this study were therefore to; i) assess the attitudes of farmers towards climate change adaptation strategies, and ii) determine the knowledge required by farmers to adapt to climate change. The study employed cross sectional survey design, where 90 randomly selected households from Mbale district, Nyondo Sub County were interviewed. As a response to drought, few respondents did not know about the following: mixed farming 14.2%, agroforestry 12.6%, tree planting 12.3%, and planting cover crops 9.6%. For the case of responses to too much rainfall, only26% of the respondents were knowledgeable about digging channels in gardens, 18%planting on ridges, 14.7% keeping animals indoors, and 9.2% water harvesting. About ninety five percent of the respondents were not knowledgeable about changing crop variety as a response to climate change. Other responses to climate that respondents were least knowledgeable about were, changing plant dates (96%), reducing number of livestock (97%), re-use of waste water (99.5%) Whereas the majority (90%) of the respondents had knowledge about post-harvest techniques, water harvesting, agroforestry, mulching, planting cover crops and digging channels, they did not practice them claiming they were not useful. Given the results of the study that show that majority of respondents were not knowledgeable on the basic adaptation technics on addition to harboring negative attitudes towards practicing some of them, there is urgent need for more sensitization and training to improve on their ability to adapt their farming activities to cope and adapt to climate change.
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    Assessment of importance and adaptation to bamboo planting in Mukono district.
    (Makerere University, 2023-11-27) Nampurira, Mercy
    Bamboo is an evergreen perennial, giant, woody and rapid growing fibrous plant widely distributed on the earth. It can be an available, scalable solution to some of Uganda‟s pressing development challenges as in other countries, but there is a gap in bamboo adaptation in the country. This study used Mukono as an example and it was chosen because of market availability near Kampala for the bamboo products. The general objective of the study was to document the importance and adoption of bamboo in Uganda with Mukono district as a case study. Mukono district has 13 sub-counties which include; Goma, Kkome islands, Nabaale, Nama, Seeta-namuganga, Kasawo, Kyampisi, Nagojje, Ntengeru, Kimenyedde, Mukono Tc, Nakisunga and Ntunda. All the farmers growing bamboo in these sub-counties were interviewed randomly using the questionnaire surveys. Direct observation was done for the products done from bamboo and literature review was done to provide secondary data for the study. The results indicated that there were seven bamboo species planted in Mukono district with Bambusa vulgaris vitata and Bambusa vulgaris being the most common. The other species were Bambusa bamboos, Oxytenanthera abbysinica, Bambusa polymorpha, Dendercalamus asper and Phyllostachys aurea. The most used method of propagation was the culm cuttings, followed by use of rhizomes, seeds and layering. The major source of bamboo planting material is the nurseries under NFA, though most farmers accessed the seedlings through donations from non-government organizations like INBAR. Most bamboo planted by the farmers was used for fencing around their homes. When harvested, the bamboo was further processed to make toothpicks, for construction, charcoal, textiles, crafts, pulp and paper in the Bamboo Uganda processing facility in Mukono. One thing that greatly motivated the farmers to plant bamboo was the free seedlings offered by non-government organizations to grow the bamboo. The major challenge faced is low funding received from the government itself, low training and boost of the market for bamboo products. It was recommended that further experimental studies should be done to investigate the survival percentage of the bamboo subjected to ground or simple layering, air layering or marcotting, stump layering and seedling layering. Government should also sponsor trainings for processing techniques of bamboo products as well as improve the market base for the products so as to boost the farmer‟s morale towards growing of bamboo.
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    Assessment of Research and Technology Needs for Climate Change Adaptation Among Farmers in Nebbi District
    (Makerere University, 2021-03) Adule, Kenan
    Climate change is one of the biggest challenges facing our society today. This is because of its impacts like prolonged drought and unpredicted precipitation patterns which increase vulnerability of small scale farming communities. The ability of the local communities to adapt to the impacts is influenced by access to relevant research information and technology advancements. However, intervention measures are often hindered by lack of information about research and technology needs of affected communities. Therefore, this research sought to generate information on research and technology needs for climate change adaptation among farmers in Nebbi district. This was achieved by assessing the research and technology needs among farmers in the district. The total household population for six villages was determined, three each from two parishes to determine the sample size. During a two months’ study, a semi-structured questionnaire was used to collect data on the research and technology needs of the farming communities. Descriptive statistics was used to analyze the data to determine distribution and associations among the variables. The results show over 90% of the farmers’ research needs included; information on resilient crop species to grow under wet and dry conditions, availability of fast maturing crop varieties, and techniques for harvesting and storage of excess water. Over 90% of the farmers’ technology needs included; irrigation, use of waste water and water harvesting and irrigation because they either didn’t know how they are done or didn’t have the resources to carry out the practices. Information from this research will therefore be useful in guiding new climate change support activities and promote possible strategies and approaches that will build capacity on community resilience to climate change. For this to be successful, there is need for proper coordination among government and support institutions to come up with strategies that aim at disseminating relevant research information to the farming communities for effective climate change adaptation. Activities aimed at providing financial support to the farming communities should also be organized so that the farmers are able to afford the various adaptation technologies.
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    Assessment of training needs for climate change adaptation among farmers in Kyangwali Sub-county, Kikuube district
    (Makerere University, 2020) Ndabikunze, David
    There is an increase in vulnerability of small scale farmers in Uganda to climate change impacts. This is due to high exposure to the climate change impacts and ineffectiveness of the farmer’s adaptation strategies, and inappropriate interventions from government and Non-governmental organizations. This is likely to affect community livelihoods due to increased food insecurity and reduced household incomes. Therefore, the main research objective was to identify gaps in the farmers’ adaptations strategies, specifically training needs among farmers in kyangwali sub county, Kikuube district, as a determinant for successful and effective climate change adaptation. The specific objectives were; evaluating adaptation practices employed by farmers to climate change impacts, and determining the skills needed by farmers for effective adaptation to climate change impacts. A survey was used to collect information about training needs from 100 households selected randomly from 10 villages in Kyangwali Sub County, Kikuube district. The research results mainly indicate 98% of the farmers change crop varieties, 95% carry out mixed farming and 87% of farmer plant early maturing crops as adaptation to climate impacts. However, 100% of the respondents expressed a need for training to improve their adaptation practices. Specifically, 100% need training about irrigation skills, soil and water conservation, Agroforestry, Plant of short season variety, and 98% in drought resistant varieties. Therefore, major training gaps were identified in several practices like irrigation, soil and water conservation, early planting, different crop varieties, agroforestry and tree planting. Training is an important determinant of successful and effective climate change adaptation. Given the results from the research, a key recommendation is that the concerned authorities like government and Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs), ought to formulate relevant trainings addressing the identified skills gap in adaptation practices employed by farmers.
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    Information needs for climate change adaptation among farmers in Mubende district
    (Makerere University, 2021-02) Mutesasira, George william
    In sub Saharan Africa, agriculture is majorly rain fed and therefore vulnerable to the impacts of climate change which are manifested as frequent, intense and prolonged dry spells, droughts, floods, increased temperatures and higher incidences of pests and diseases. In order to adapt and cope with these impacts, farmers need accurate and timely information. It is however not well known if the information currently available to farmers meets this criterion. The objectives of the study were to: i) assess the timeliness and reliability of the information received by the farmers for climate change adaptation, and ii) identify types of climate change information needed by farmers in Mubende district. The study employed cross sectional survey design. One hundred and one households were randomly selected and interviewed about information received and currently needed to respond to the impacts of climate change. Results show that 91% of the respondents are experiencing drought while 90% acknowledged experiencing unexpectedly high amounts of rainfall. In response to drought, only 22% considered information on alternative crops to grow being timely while only 16% acknowledged that this information was reliable. A few respondents considered information on irrigation (3%), availability of money for farm investment (7%) and soil water conservation (10%) as reliable. In response to unexpectedly high rainfall, only 17% of the respondents considered information on seed drying techniques as timely and reliable. Only a few respondents considered information on techniques for draining excess water, (13%) and alternative crops (40%) as being reliable. The information that farmers needed most and that they lacked to respond to drought included, accurate and timely information on onset of rains (97%), and crops to grow that withstand drought (73%). In order to respond to unexpectedly high rainfall, farmers needed information on, techniques for harvesting and storage of excess water (71%) and techniques for drying seeds (71%). These results indicate a generally low timeliness and reliability of information on different climate change adaptation practices among farmers. Additionally, respondents revealed high desire for getting this information, implying that there is urgent need for more dissemination of the information as well as enhancement of farmers’-extension service delivery in Mubende.
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    The role of local institutions in climate change adaptation in Paicho-Subcounty, Gulu district
    (Makerere University, 2019-09) Acaye, Raymond
    The goal of the study was to generate information on the roles of local institutions in supporting local community climate change adaptation. The study employed a cross-sectional research designs, using a random stage cluster sampling strategy where a total of 61 households were randomly selected for the study. Data was collected using the questionnaire method. The finding showed that women were more engaged in implementing adaptation actions than men. The study identified some physical adaptation practices implemented by the communities. The majority of the respondents were implementing mixed farming and adjusting planting and harvesting dates for crops as their major adaptation actions towards climate change. The study identified some of the institutions involved in facilitating adaptation measures in the communities; Lutheran World Federation (LWF), Aid Africa, BRAC, African Women Rising, World Vision, Acaki Peyot Farmer’s group, NFA and government programs; NUSAF, NAADS. Institutional adaptation measures identified include: training of the local community on the climate change, adaptation and mitigation, funding of the climate change related projects and livelihood programs such as provision of seeds and tree seedlings, provision of water harvesting and conservation techniques, early warning system through dissemination of weather forecast information. The study concluded that the local institutions play critical roles in enhancing local community climate change adaptation. However, NGOs are more practically involved in supporting local community adaptation than government. The most outreach strategy employed by these institutions was organizing meeting with the communities through their potentials leaders. In order to reduce the risk associated with vulnerability to the increasing impacts of climate change on farmers and rural livelihoods. The study recommended the need to strengthen the capacity of the local institutions through funding to enable institutions provide sustainable livelihood projects such as distribution of cattle, goats, drought resistant crops; provide extensive entrepreneurship training; to increase extension workers; promote climate smart agriculture, and building their capacities in climate change, mitigation and adaptation for them to provide relatively effective institutional adaptation measures that will better increase adaptive capacity of the local communities. The study further recommended need to encourage water harvesting and conservation scheme, improve dissemination of weather and climate information systems to better adapt to climate change impacts.