A presentation made as a case study during the training course on Livelihoods systems dynamics in rural development course,´ at the Centre for Development Research, BOKU, Austria on 11 March 2015.

1. Joshua Zake, Doctoral Candidate
Centre for Development Research, University of Natural
Resources and Life Sciences
Email: joshua.zake@boku.ac.at or joszake@gmail.com
Climate change preparedness and
adaptation; A case of smallholder
farmers in Central Uganda
Presented at the training course on livelihood systems dynamics in rural
development (1 SSt S, 25 2014/15 - 1693040), 11/03/15, Centre for
Development Research.

2. Outline of presentation
• Definition of selected terms
• Examples of climate change disasters in central Uganda
• Impacts of climate change on livelihoods of smallholder
farmers
• Preparedness for climate change disaster impacts at
community level
• Farmers responses – early actions for adaption and
mitigation
• Discussions/interactions

3. Definition of selected terms
• Climate is the prevailing or average weather
conditions of a place as determined by the
temperature and meteorological change over a period
of time. Various factors determine climate and the
most important are rainfall and temperature.
• Climate variability is defined as the change in the
mean state and other statistics (such as standard
deviations, the occurrence of extremes) of the climate
on all temporal and spatial scales beyond that of
individual weather events.
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4. Definition of selected terms
• Climate change adaptation refers to adjustments in
practices, processes, or structures to take into account
changing climate conditions, to moderate potential
damages, or to benefit from opportunities associated with
climate change.
• Disaster is a sudden event that seriously disrupts the
functioning of a community or society and causes human,
material, and economic or environmental losses that
exceed the community’s or society’s ability to cope using
its own resources.
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5. Definition of selected terms
Disaster preparedness refers to the knowledge and
capacities developed by stakeholders to effectively
anticipate, respond to and recover from the impacts of likely,
imminent or current disaster events or conditions.
It is based on sound analyses of disaster risks and good
linkages with early-warning systems.
Early warning early action is routinely taking humanitarian
action before a disaster happens, making full use of
scientific information on all time scales.
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6. Study site
• Banana and Coffee are major food and cash in Uganda.
• Uganda is 11th
largest producer of coffee in the World and 2nd
largest producer of bananas in Africa.
• Central Uganda is the traditional banana growing region from
which it spread to other parts of the Country.
• Banana grown as monoculture or banana-coffee agroforestry.
• Dominant soils are highly old weathered Ferralsols.
• Rainfall is bimodal; Annual average is 1320 mm.
• Climate variability disasters cause destruction of plantations
increasing the risks of food shortages.

7. Study site: Mpigi district, Central Uganda
Coordinates for Mpigi district: 000
14’
N 320
20’
E
Zake and Hauser (2014).

8. Paper 2– Zake et al. (2015). J. Plant Nutr. Soil Sci.

9. Materials and methods
• Literature review to understand knowledge about the research
focus.
• Preparation of research tools i.e. semi-structured survey
questionnaires and check lists for key informants and focus group
discussions.
• Survey research tools were tailored to integrate gender issues as
appropriate.
• The were pre-tested before the full scale administration.

10. Materials and methods
Farmer selection
•The farmers who participated in the interviews and the focus
group discussions were selected randomly using existing lists of
official registered farmers’ groups at sub-county level and list of
respondents involved in the household survey, respectively.
•On-farm interviews were conducted among 133 farmers using
the semi-structured questionnaires.
•2 focus group discussions were conducted involving at least 15
respondents.

11. Data collection and analyses
• Interactive interviews were
conducted with 30 key informants at
national and local levels.
• Data generated using the semi-
structured survey questionnaires
were analyzed using SPSS 16 to
generate percentages for variables
and correlations between the
variables using Chi-square.

12. Key results
Paper 1 - Zake and Hauser (2014).

13. Impacts of climate change disasters
• Destruction of crops – reduced or no harvests; no food for
eat
• Death of livestock – loss of products (milk, eggs, manure)
and security
• Overall results in household food insecurity, poor nutrition
and health
• Loss of income – failure to meet basic livelihood needs..
Paper 1 - Zake and Hauser (2014).

14. Table 2. Respondent’s perceptions of occurrence of climate change disasters in the last 2–5
years vs. engaging in off-farm income-generating activities as a result of climate variability
(N = 133).
Paper 1 - Zake and Hauser (2014).

15. Figure 1. Interaction between key actors and farmers in the implementation of
community early warning actions in Mpigi district.
Paper 1 - Zake and Hauser (2014).

16. Key results
Paper 1 - Zake and Hauser (2014).

17. Key results
Paper 1 - Zake and Hauser (2014).

18. Key results
Paper 1 - Zake and Hauser (2014).

19. Conclusion
• Farmers perceived prolonged droughts, increased pests
and diseases outbreaks in crops and livestock as a
consequence of climate change as the major climate
change disasters.
• The inadequate implementation of climate change
disaster preparedness strategies at community level
triggers early actions by farmers.

20. Recommendations
• Effective implementation of disaster preparedness
strategies is needed to avert the current negative climate
change disasters impacts on community livelihood;
• Farmer’s early actions for addressing climate change
disasters should be integrated in the implementation of
the climate change disaster policy strategies at
household, village and sub-county levels in Mpigi district.
• Strengthening of climate change disaster safety nets
based on off-farm income-generating activities should be
explored

21. Selected references for further reading
• IFRC – International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies
(2008a). Early Warning > Early Action.
• Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. (2001). Third assessment report.
United Nations Environment Program.
• United Nations International Strategy for Disaster Risk Reduction. (2009).
Terminology on disaster risk reduction. Geneva: United Nations.
• Paper 1 - Zake, J. and Hauser, M. (2014). Farmers' perceptions of
implementation of climate variability disaster preparedness strategies in Central
Uganda. Journal of Environmental Hazards. doi:10.1080/17477891.2014.910491
• Paper 2 - Zake, J., Pietsch, S. A., Friedel, J. K. and Zechmeister-Boltenstern, S.
(2015). Can agroforestry improve soil fertility and carbon storage in smallholder
banana farming systems?. J. Plant Nutr. Soil Sci. doi: 10.1002/jpln.201400281
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22. Danke!!
Thank you for
listening!!!