Drivers and restrictions of range pasture improvement by agro-pastoralists in Kiruhura District, Uganda

Abstract

Range pastures provide the basic ruminant feeds resource for livestock production in semi-arid areas despite ruminant nutrition remaining a challenge affecting productivity. Different livestock development interventions have been promoted to improve livestock nutrition with low farmer adoption rate. A cross sectional exploratory study was conducted between March and July 2018 to identify the drivers of range pastures improvement technologies adoption in rangelands with specific objectives as: (a) Assessing the knowledge, attitudes and practices of pastoralists in regard to range pasture improvement practices and technologies; (b) identifying the forage species planted by pastoralists and strategies for their sustainable utilization; (c) identifying the incentives for the adoption and maintenance of range pasture improvement practices and; (d) identifying the key players and their roles in range pasture improvement promotion and constraints faced in attempt to improve rangeland pastures. A structured questionnaire guided interview was conducted with 294 agro pastoralists while qualitative data was obtained using, KII. Results revealed that farmers had knowledge on range pasture improvement technologies, although adoption rate was low (19.5%). The range pasture improvement practices, included: Pasture establishment, bush clearing, paddocking, conservation, reseeding and over-sowing and water development. However, results also revealed knowledge gaps in silage and hay making, reseeding and understanding principles of range management. The level of education, household income, off farm activities, access to laborers and credit, agriculture exhibitions, farmers' meetings and on-farm demonstrations influenced farmers' adoption of fodder production technologies. Farm gate milk prices, sensitization, financial support, farm output of adopters and inputs support seemed to drive farmers to improve their range pastures. These findings underline the importance of farm-gate milk prices and institutional support as drivers for farmer decision for investment in pasture improvement. Therefore, policy and development interventions should emphasize improvement of milk farm gate prices and farm support systems.

Historical Perspectives of Land Use and Land Cover Change in the Sanga-Lake Mburo former Pastoral Rangeland Ecosystem, Uganda

“…Land use influences the nutrient distribution and their supply by causing the alteration of the soil property and controlling the activity of microbes near the root zones. Cultivation causes the soil carbon to diminish within a few years of the conversion (Murty et al, 2002), reducing carbon sequestration (Robert et al, 2020) and can substantially lower the mineralizable soil nitrogen (Richter et al, 2000). The topsoil organic diminishes, thus reducing the productivity (Majaliwa et al, 2010).…”

Dominant practices, information, and constraints of soil moisture conservation and nutrient management for range pastures in a sedentary grazing system in South-Western Uganda

“…For South-western Uganda, it is reported that in the last decade, there were efforts of improving the productivity of range pastures through the dryland husbandry project. The project promoted practices which included pasture establishment; organic manuring, water harvesting, over-sowing and reseeding; legume pasture seed production and erosion control (Twinamasiko et al, 2020). Without clear explanation, there was unanticipated drop out of implementation of pasture improvement practices and technologies by livestock farmers upon the project expiry.…”