Climate Variability and Soil Nutrients Status along Altitudinal Gradient in Kigezi Highlands, Southwestern Uganda

Institutional Determinants to Climate Variability Adaptation by Smallholder Irish Potato Farmers in Rubanda District, South Western Uganda

“…The use of fertilizers helps in replenishing lost soil nutrients and increasing nutrient availability in the soil which increases crop productivity and resistance to pests and diseases[29].Planting fast maturing and drought resistant varieties is suitable in areas withland shortage such as Rubanda where the study was conducted. This is consistent with the findings by[17] who reported the use of improved varieties as the main adaptation measure among the agricultural households in Ghana and South Western Uganda respectively.…”

“…The most popular agronomic adaptive measures included early planting, mulching, terracing, contour ploughing, fallowing, shifting cultivation, timely weeding, use of compost manure, intercropping and crop rotation. The use of soil and water conservation measures such as terracing and contour ploughing is significant in improving the water holding capacity of the soil and offsetting runoff[17]. The findings also confirm the observations made by other studies that contour ploughing and terracing are among the adaptation measures within the agricultural communities[31] [32].…”

“…These changes will be significant for agriculture and food security [3] [8]. The south western highlands have not been spared by this phenomenon as studies report that the area is experiencing changes in precipitation and temperature [12] [17]. For instance, smallholder farmers are already experiencing the negative effects of climate variability such as decline in crop yields, declining soil fertility because of accelerated soil erosion and proliferation of pests and diseases [5] [18] [19].…”

Vulnerability of smallholder sorghum farmers to climate variability in a heterogeneous landscape of south-western Uganda

“…The area's topography greatly varies with flatlands, valleys, hills and highlands. The area receives more than 1200 mm of annual rainfall (Twagiramaria & Tolo 2016) and thus has a montane climate.…”

“…In the Kabale highlands where this study concentrated, the rocks are of Ankole-Karegwean nature composed of phyllites, shales, mudstones, quartzites and metamorphiclike schists, while the soils are dark red and brown sandy loam and sandy clay loam (Bagoora 1988). Kigezi highland area records one of the highest population densities (UBOS 2016), with highly fragmented pieces of land (Bagoora 1988;Twagiramaria & Tolo 2016). Sorghum was investigated because it is a traditional cash and food crop in the area, evidently challenged by the effects of climate change (Akatwijuka, Rubaihayo & Odong 2016).…”