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School systems in Africa are short of skills that link well with rural communities, yet arguments to vocationalize curricula remain mixed and school agriculture lacks the supervised practical component. This study, conducted in eight primary (elementary) schools in Uganda, sought to compare the learning achievement of pupils taught using supervised home-gardens and those taught using school gardens. The two gardening groups were tested using a t-test. Data were collected for a period of four school terms using pre and posttest questionnaires, focus group discussions (FGDs), interviews, observations, and a posttest examination. Findings showed no significant difference in knowledge achievement between the two groups of pupils (p<0.05), and in parents' attitudes towards school agriculture. Home gardening had a number of additional benefits to pupils, such as personal income and purchase of productive assets like chicken and rabbits from proceeds; food to households; and, independent learning. It is recommended that home gardens should be adopted as a matter of agricultural education policy alongside conventional school gardening in developing countries like Uganda; but further studies are needed to understand constraints in each local situation.

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This chapter examines the institutional sustainability of internationally financed support for rural climate change adaptation in Uganda. The most common approach for such support is the 'planned climate change adaptation approach', which relies on projects as a mechanism for implementation and governance. This raises two concerns. Firstly, a project mode of implementation frequently establishes structures, procedures and funding mechanisms parallel to those of government, have limited time framework and have been widely criticized and abandoned in development work in favour of participatory planning and decentralized governance structures. Further, this chapter seeks to explore the implications of the skewed funding modality for climate change activities for implementation at the subnational administrative levels. This project mode of implementation centralizes decision making at the ministerial and UN agencies level. However, adaptation measures can best be implemented at the district level in the context of decentralized local governments.

This chapter analyses the extent to which, and how, the combination of two trends are responsible for the increased tension between different land-use groups that has emerged over the past decade: climate change and the commercialization of rice cultivation. The chapter aims to examine the interactions of different institutions and enterprises and the consequences for climate change adaptation in the Awoja wetland system in Uganda. By studying the contestation among local groups over ownership of the wetlands, the chapter shows how conflicts over wetlands resources are being exacerbated by fuzzy land property rights and weak local governance institutions. Examining what roles are played by business people, local government bureaucrats and the political and economic elites of local communities shows how elite capture of weak local public wetland management institutions has accelerated the degradation of the Awoja wetland system.