Farmers’ perception of and coping strategies to climate change: evidence from six agro-ecological zones of Uganda

In Uganda, weather-related events such as prolonged dry seasons, floods, storms, mudslides, extreme rainfall, and delayed/early rains have become more frequent and/or intense. This has left most of the rural poor farmers’ food insecure and their livelihoods threatened. A total of 192 sweetpotato far...

Descripción completa

Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Okonya, J., Syndikus, K., Kroschel, Jürgen
Formato: Journal Article
Lenguaje:Inglés
Publicado: Canadian Center of Science and Education 2013
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://hdl.handle.net/10568/52124
_version_ 1855529403542405120
author Okonya, J.
Syndikus, K.
Kroschel, Jürgen
author_browse Kroschel, Jürgen
Okonya, J.
Syndikus, K.
author_facet Okonya, J.
Syndikus, K.
Kroschel, Jürgen
author_sort Okonya, J.
collection Repository of Agricultural Research Outputs (CGSpace)
description In Uganda, weather-related events such as prolonged dry seasons, floods, storms, mudslides, extreme rainfall, and delayed/early rains have become more frequent and/or intense. This has left most of the rural poor farmers’ food insecure and their livelihoods threatened. A total of 192 sweetpotato farmer households distributed in six agro-ecological zones were interviewed to assess how farmers perceive the effects of changes in climatic variables, and how they have adjusted their farming practices to cope with the changes in climate. Gender of the household head and size of land owned significantly affected adaptation. Ninety nine percent of all households interviewed had observed a change in the climate in the last 10 years. Drought and floods had the highest impact on crop production across agro-ecological zones. Coping strategies towards extreme events included storing food, income diversification and digging drainage channels. Other strategies were planting trees; high-yielding, early-maturing, drought-tolerant, disease and/or pest-resistant varieties; planting at onset of rains; increased pesticide/fungicide application among others. The smallholder farmer households studied have a high awareness of changes in rainfall and temperature and have taken measures to cope with effects of a changing climate.
format Journal Article
id CGSpace52124
institution CGIAR Consortium
language Inglés
publishDate 2013
publishDateRange 2013
publishDateSort 2013
publisher Canadian Center of Science and Education
publisherStr Canadian Center of Science and Education
record_format dspace
spelling CGSpace521242025-02-19T13:42:29Z Farmers’ perception of and coping strategies to climate change: evidence from six agro-ecological zones of Uganda Okonya, J. Syndikus, K. Kroschel, Jürgen climate agriculture sweet potatoes adaptation gender smallholders In Uganda, weather-related events such as prolonged dry seasons, floods, storms, mudslides, extreme rainfall, and delayed/early rains have become more frequent and/or intense. This has left most of the rural poor farmers’ food insecure and their livelihoods threatened. A total of 192 sweetpotato farmer households distributed in six agro-ecological zones were interviewed to assess how farmers perceive the effects of changes in climatic variables, and how they have adjusted their farming practices to cope with the changes in climate. Gender of the household head and size of land owned significantly affected adaptation. Ninety nine percent of all households interviewed had observed a change in the climate in the last 10 years. Drought and floods had the highest impact on crop production across agro-ecological zones. Coping strategies towards extreme events included storing food, income diversification and digging drainage channels. Other strategies were planting trees; high-yielding, early-maturing, drought-tolerant, disease and/or pest-resistant varieties; planting at onset of rains; increased pesticide/fungicide application among others. The smallholder farmer households studied have a high awareness of changes in rainfall and temperature and have taken measures to cope with effects of a changing climate. 2013 2014-12-16T06:37:34Z 2014-12-16T06:37:34Z Journal Article https://hdl.handle.net/10568/52124 en Open Access Canadian Center of Science and Education Okonya JS, Syndikus K, Kroschel J. 2013. Farmers’ perception of and coping strategies to climate change: evidence from six agro-ecological zones of Uganda. Journal of Agricultural Science 5(8).
spellingShingle climate
agriculture
sweet potatoes
adaptation
gender
smallholders
Okonya, J.
Syndikus, K.
Kroschel, Jürgen
Farmers’ perception of and coping strategies to climate change: evidence from six agro-ecological zones of Uganda
title Farmers’ perception of and coping strategies to climate change: evidence from six agro-ecological zones of Uganda
title_full Farmers’ perception of and coping strategies to climate change: evidence from six agro-ecological zones of Uganda
title_fullStr Farmers’ perception of and coping strategies to climate change: evidence from six agro-ecological zones of Uganda
title_full_unstemmed Farmers’ perception of and coping strategies to climate change: evidence from six agro-ecological zones of Uganda
title_short Farmers’ perception of and coping strategies to climate change: evidence from six agro-ecological zones of Uganda
title_sort farmers perception of and coping strategies to climate change evidence from six agro ecological zones of uganda
topic climate
agriculture
sweet potatoes
adaptation
gender
smallholders
url https://hdl.handle.net/10568/52124
work_keys_str_mv AT okonyaj farmersperceptionofandcopingstrategiestoclimatechangeevidencefromsixagroecologicalzonesofuganda
AT syndikusk farmersperceptionofandcopingstrategiestoclimatechangeevidencefromsixagroecologicalzonesofuganda
AT kroscheljurgen farmersperceptionofandcopingstrategiestoclimatechangeevidencefromsixagroecologicalzonesofuganda