Assessing the level of adoption of rainwater harvesting among small scale farmers in Bungokho south, Mbale district

Abstract

The agriculture sector uses the most water, by far, with a water use of more than 80% of available fresh water. Most of the agricultural activities have been greatly affected by climate change, mainly the intensity and patterns of rainfall and therefore farmers have come up with different ways of ensuring continuous supply of water necessary for agriculture and this includes rainwater harvesting. This study aimed at assessing the level of adoption of rainwater harvesting in Bungokho South sub county, Mbale district. Specifically, three objectives guided the study; (1) to characterize the rainwater harvesting techniques utilized by small-scale farmers in Mbale. (2) to determine factors influencing the choice of rainwater harvesting technique utilized, and (3). to assess the benefits of rainwater harvesting to small-scale farmers. A household survey was conducted among 96 respondents using a questionnaire. Data was analyzed using Principal Component Analysis (PCA) to characterize the RWH techniques utilized by small-scale farmers in Mbale, multinomial logistic analysis was used to determine the factors influencing the choice of rainwater harvesting technique utilized and frequencies and percentages were obtained to assess the benefits of rainwater harvesting to small scale farmers. The results revealed that rooftop, guttering and stone budding are the most relied on rainwater harvesting techniques in the study area. The factors influencing the choice of rainwater harvesting technique utilized were family size, storage size, education and occupation. The study also revealed small scale farmers used rainwater for cooking, mopping, drinking, washing clothes and utensils at household level, they used it for irrigation and maintaining soil moisture in agriculture, used it for cleaning animal’s sleeping quarters and drinking in livestock keeping, they as well harvested rainwater to control soil erosion, refill ground water reserves, control flooding and control poor quality of water in lakes and streams. This study concludes that small scale farmers in Mbale locally invested in and understood rooftop, guttering and stone budding rainwater harvesting techniques. It is recommended that financial support should be provided to farmers by the government to enable them to improve the condition of the existing rainwater harvesting systems for example replacing worn out water storage systems and guttering systems with new ones and also replacing small water storage tanks with bigger ones to enable farmers collect more water during rainy seasons. Key words: Rainwater harvesting, Small-scale farmers, Agriculture, Climate change