On-farm tree growing for meeting household needs: A case study of Kashare Sub County Mbarara District

Abstract

A survey was conducted in Kashare Sub County, Mbarara District in December 2018 to assess the different on-farm tree growing practices, document the on-farm trees cultivated by farmers by species and age. The objectives were: (i)To assess the different on-farm tree growing practices (ii)To document the on-farm trees cultivated by farmers by species and age And (iii)To determine the benefits of on-farm tree growing to the farming households. 80 Copies of Structured Open-Ended Questionnaires were distributed to eighty farmers, 20 farmers per parish which were filled by farmers. Data was cleaned, coded and entered in SPSS and Microsoft Excel for analysis. Data was analysed using descriptive statistics. Results reveal that home gardening had most adoption rate (97.5%) and was most preferred with a percentage of (58.8) than farmland situated away from the homesteads. The most considered factors before tree planting were land (71.2%), tree purpose (43.8%), tree characteristics (33.8%), tree species (31.2%) and availability of seedlings (28.8%). The most grown and preferred tree species were Persea americana, Mangifera indica, Eucalyptus spp, Artocarpus heterophylus and coffea spp most of which were harvested at three years and mainly grown at boundaries and compound due to limited land. The trees mainly provide fruits, shade, poles, firewood income and herbal medicine. However, farmers face challenges mostly like; pests, diseases, draught, theft and also competition between trees and agricultural crops. There are opportunities for reducing or even avoid the challenges majorly through spraying regularly, Watering seedlings during the drought, Fencing regularly, Proper site species matching, and Planting draught resistant varieties