Adoption of Climate Smart Technologies By Selected Smallholder Farmers of Kigorobya and Buseruka Sub Counties in Hoima District

Abstract

The study sought to investigate the adoption of climate smart technologies among selected smallholder farmers in Buseruka and Kigorobya sub-counties in Hoima district. The study had three objectives; evaluating the impacts of climate change on smallholder farmers, assessing indigenous climate change practices in smallholder farmers and assessing climate smart technologies being used by smallholder farmers in Hoima district. The study employed a case study research design. Sample size of 120 respondents was selected using purposive sampling and data collected using questionnaires, key informants and non-participant and analysed using statistical package for social scientist (SPSS version 20).

The study found out that smallholder farmers had coping practices or climate smart technologies such as, mulching (10.3%), agroforestry (0.0%), crop rotation (55.7%), intercropping (24.7%), fallowing (4.1%) and use of organic manure (5.2%).Climate smart technologies aims to sustainably increase agricultural production and increase resilience to climate change. It also addresses the challenges of how to transition to a climate smart agriculture. The study also revealed that the impacts of climate change among the smallholder farmers was crop failure (68.0%), increased poverty levels (26.8%), food scarcity/famine (0.0%) and increased animal/crop pest and disease incidences (5.2%). It was further found out that most farmers have embraced at least one adaptation strategy, which are mainly influenced by perceptions/attitude, level of awareness, access to credit, and size of cultivatable land among others. Furthermore, Indigenous knowledge was revealed as one of the unique adaptation strategies that was informally being applied by the farmers based on Early warning systems (Migratory birds, Massive collection of pollen and nectar by bees as a sign of rains, Reddish yellow sky and Shading off of tree leaves, as a sign of dry spells) and underscored its importance but acknowledged that it is however not well harnessed.

The study concludes that the implications of climate change are found to vary under various socio-economic scenarios and as such, the capacity to adapt is determined by level of awareness, access to credit, gender, and land ownership.

Proposals were made and these included; developing and implementing integrated natural resource management for harmonization of key conflicting policies, enhance opportunities for small scale irrigation and water harvesting, promote formation of local rural institutions and farmer groups, encourage transition to climate smart agriculture and improve the availability and quality of meteorological monitoring data.

Login to download()