| dc.description.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. | en_US |
