Homegardens are species-rich agroforestry systems with a high diversity of associated traditional knowledge. These systems are an important part of food security for rural marginalized poor around the world, particularly in the humid tropics. Despite the high diversity and cultural importance, little is known about the livelihood-relevant plant diversity contained in the homegardens of southwestern Uganda. Here we employ the quantitative ethnobotany indices use reports (UR) and the cultural importance index (CI) to describe the importance of plants and plant types in the region’s homegardens. Data is based on inventories of 102 homegardens in the Greater Bushenyi from 2014 and reveals 225 useful plant species in 14 different use categories with 3,961 UR, 54% for food, 15% for economic uses, and 11% for medicine. The findings highlight the importance of homegarden plants for subsistence farming households and indicate that they are important places for conservation of botanical agrobiodiversity that should be considered part of the conservation movement in Uganda. Efforts to conserve both botanical and food system diversity in the extremely rich but rapidly deteriorating regional socio-cultural and ecological systems should consider homegardens for their role in conservation of plants and preservation of traditional knowledge.

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This paper presents results of soil analysis for samples extracted from Makerere University Agricultural Research Institute Kabanyolo. The study was aimed at ascertaining the suitability of MUARIK soils for fruit (pineapple, passion fruit and watermelon) and vegetable (cabbage, eggplant, tomato and pumpkin) growth, yield and maturity. Soil morphological, physical and chemical properties were probed by excavating a 1.86 meter soil profile pit and sampling soils in 9 equidistant locations at MUARIK. The soil morphology and physical properties were described using the Munsel colour chart and USDA classification system while chemical parameters were determined in Makerere University Soil Laboratory following procedures described by Okalebo et al. [1]. Three pedon layers (RSK-H1, RSK-H3 and RSK-H5) had gradual boundaries while RSK-H4 was continuous. However, RSK-H2 and RSK-H6 had abrupt boundary layers. The texture of the profiles was clayey (52%). The soils were acidic with a pH of 6.08 (sub soil) to 6.12 (top soil). On comparison with standard requirements for target fruits and vegetables, the site was deficient in most of the minerals including P (8.88 -12.42 pmm), Ca (6.46 -7.92 pmm), K (0.06 -0.47 pmm), Mg (1.37 -1.70 pmm), Na (0.17 -0.23 pmm), N (0.18 -0.19 pmm), and soil organic matter (4.53% -4.81%). Sand and clay had the highest negative significant correlation (r = −0.94, p < 0.01) in the top soil. The highest positive significant correlation was observed between Ca and Mg both in the topsoil (r = 0.96, p < 0.01) and subsoil (r = 0.99, p < 0.01). MUARIK is suitable for growing cabbage and pumpkin. However, for improved growth, yields and maturity, the soils should be amended with manure (watermelon), lime (passion fruit and tomato) and sulphur (eggplant and pineapples).

Rapid population growth, unsustainable land use, and a pervasively degrading landscape are components of a dominant paradigm regarding African development. While recent work articulating the 'misreading' of the African landscape have begun to challenge this paradigm, much work remains regarding the pervasiveness and character of this misread. A method is presented for investigating mechanisms of land-cover change that combines remotely sensed data, archival data, and rapid appraisals in a way less influenced by dominant paradigms. We present a case where increasing human activity is resulting in accumulation of woody biomass on edaphic grasslands of a forest-grassland mosaic, rather than the expansion of grasslands at the expense of forests as is currently understood in that area. These increases in biomass are stimulated by anthropogenic influences that are shaped by institutional and edaphic factors. We do not claim that resources are being pervasively enhanced across sub-Saharan Africa under conditions of population growth, but that there may be many mechanisms of change, resulting in both degradation and enhancement, occurring simultaneously across sub-Saharan Africa or even intra-regionally within a nation under these conditions. The integration and application of these methods serve to improve applied analyses of land-cover change to better characterize these mechanisms, and avoid the wrong policy prescriptions.

Despite heavy pressure and disturbance, state property regimes have stemmed deforestation within protected areas of the West Mengo region of Uganda for over 50 yr. In this manuscript, we reconstruct the process of creation and maintenance of forest reserve boundaries in the West Mengo region of Uganda to identify why these boundaries have largely remained stable over the long term under conditions in which they may be predicted to fail. The dramatic boundary stability in West Mengo we attribute to key aspects of institutional design and enforcement of boundaries.