The study was on socioeconomic factors influencing the uptake of coffee production recommended practices in the Kichwamba and Kirugu Sub-counties of the Rubirizi district and was conducted in February 2021. Objectives were to identify the coffee production systems and practices used, identify the socioeconomic challenges associated with the uptake of recommended practices for coffee production, and identify the policy interventions to address the challenges associated with the use of recommended coffee practices. Farmers continue to register low coffee yields hence affecting their livelihoods and incomes and achieving maximum coffee production requires that farmers apply recommended practices since the quantity and quality of the crop rely on the practices used. A cross-sectional survey was conducted using simple random sampling and a total of 376 coffee farmers were sampled. Results indicated that Arabica coffee commonly grown has two major systems intercropping and mono-cropping. The coffee-recommended practices used were weeds control (23.7%), shading (21.5%), pruning (15.5%), fertiliser application (14.1%), pest and disease management (12.2%), water drainage management (6.6%), transplanting (4.0%), and seedbed preparation (2.7%). Statistically significant socioeconomic factors affecting the uptake of recommended practices for coffee were age [p=0.014], education level [p=0.002], labour [p=0.005], Farm size [p=0.001], farming experience [p=0.031], gender [p=0.031], land slope [p=0.048], un-accessibility to credit services [p=0.032], and plot ownership [p=0.049]. Policy interventions were farmer capacity building (35.1%), strengthening agricultural extension (23.7%), credit extension to the farmers (15.7%), re-visiting land reform policies (13.6%), and group formation (11.9%). The study concluded that coffee in the study area was grown under two production systems; intercropping and mono-cropping; the major coffee recommended practices used were; seedbed management, transplanting, pruning, shading, fertiliser application, weeds control, pest and disease management, and water drainage management. Socioeconomic factors like Education level, shortage of labour, farm size, experience in farming, gender, the slope of the land, un-accessibility of credit services, farmer age and plot ownership type were significant socioeconomic factors affecting uptake of recommended practices. Suggested policy interventions were re-visiting land reform policies, credit extension, capacity building, strengthening agricultural extension, and farmer group formation. More education and training for farmers, revisiting land policies, groups, associations and cooperative formation, and credit services extension are recommended.
The study was to assess the contributions of Compassion International to the livelihood of smallholder farmers in the Bushenyi district of western Uganda. The specific objectives were to; (i) assess the household livelihood changes resulting from smallholder participation in Compassion International programs; (ii) assess the level of beneficiary participation in Compassion programs, (iii) analyse the contribution of Compassion International to food production and security, and (iv) examine the challenges being faced by Compassion International that hinder their operations in rural settings of Uganda. The study adopted a descriptive survey design that applied both quantitative and qualitative approaches for data collection. Data was captured from 206 respondents using both a questionnaire and an interview schedule. Data was analysed using SPSS version 16 to generate both descriptive and inferential statistics. The study found that smallholder participation in Compassion International programs has resulted in livelihood changes such as; enhanced child education, household economic and spiritual empowerment, increased access to agricultural inputs, income-generating projects, and enhanced household capacities. The study also found that beneficiaries participated in compassion programs by attending organisation outreaches, seminars, and annual meetings, mobilising local resources towards the cause, participating in project activities, paying annual membership fees, and giving feedback on project activities and operations. Compassion International has contributed towards household food production and security of the household across the district by setting up agricultural support projects, mobilising farmers, providing agro-inputs, and facilitating extension service delivery. The study further established that; poor funding, corruption and misuse of funds, competition and poor power relations with the local government are the key challenges hindering Compassion International’s operations in the Bushenyi district. The study concluded that though smallholder farmer participation in compassion programs has resulted in improved livelihood changes for member households, there remains a huge socio-economic gap in the Bushenyi district. The organisations’ operations are still hampered by a number of challenges. The NGO needs to tackle poverty reduction dynamically, strategically, and comprehensively. This is because poverty is a multidimensional phenomenon that needs a multidimensional approach. There is a need to look at other categories of needy people in society such as the elderly, widows, and disabled persons, rather than placing emphasis on a category.
Background: The effects of climate change such as droughts, floods and land degradations normally result into crop failures among smallholder farmers. The effect is more adverse on smallholder farmers of Sub Sharan region owing to its low coping strategies and poverty prevalence. Assessing the smallholder farmers coping strategies to the effects of climate is an evitable thought if we want to develop sustainable coping options and policies to climate change. The main objectives of this study were to investigate the effects of climate change, and assess on how the smallholder farmers coped up with them. A cross-sectional survey research design was employed to generate data from the 360 randomly selected household heads across the nine parishes in the Sub County via a semi- structured questionnaire, interviews schedules to key informants and focus group discussion to smallholder farmer groups. The SPSS tool was used to analyze the effects of climate change and their coping strategies and presented in frequency distribution tables and correlation matrices. Results: The two most widely practiced coping strategies were sales of productive assets and reduction in food consumptions rates among the smallholder farmers. The results from the correlation analysis revealed that there were significant positive correlations between floods, droughts, famines, and sales of productive assets and reduction in consumption rates of food. Conclusion: The findings from the study note that there are several factors that work in synergy to influence the specific coping strategies by smallholder farmers to climate change. This therefore calls for more efforts from government and development partners to strengthen the agricultural extension services by customizing climate information delivery system, allocating more fundings to researchers to engineer climate-tolerant crop and animal resources, investing on water for production projects, renting out idle pieces land to investors by smallholder farmers in order to provide the additional source of earnings.
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