Assessing the impact of climate variability on rice productivity in Uganda, a case study of Namasagali sub-county Kamuli district

Abstract

Climate variability as a stress towards efficient rice productivity has also significantly affected global agriculture in the 21st century. Before the intensification in the occurrence of extreme weather events, outbreak of pests and diseases, rice farmers in Namasagali sub-county used to grow rain fed rice in two seasons and the output in terms of quality and quantity was satisfactory to farmers despite the fact that less efforts were employed. This study was conducted in Namasagali sub-county in Bwiiza, Kasozi, Kisaikye and Namasagali parishes, Kamuli district so as to gather information on the impact of climate variability on rice productivity. This was aimed to identify the different varieties of rice grown in the area, the effects of climate variability on rice productivity and the different measures that may be put in place to adapt to the effects of climate variability on rice productivity. The study employed simple random sampling and purposive sampling techniques to get the data from the sample of 67 respondents. Data was collected from rice farmers of age 18-60 years and above using self-administer questionnaires, interviews, and observation. Microsoft office Excel was used for data entry while SPSS 20 was used for analysis. This made it easy to-come up with pie charts; bar graphs and frequency tables for eased presentation and interpretation. The study revealed that men were more engaged in rice growing than women, most of the farmers had low education levels (primary level) and most of them were self-employed on hired land of about 1-4 acres implying that rice growing was majorly small scale based. The major rice varieties grown by farmers in Namasagali sub county included; NERICA 6 (Benenego), Suparica (Supa china), NERICA 4 (Supa) and NERICA 10 (Kaiso) because they are drought resistant and highly productive. Prolonged drought, outbreak of pests and diseases and seasonal flooding were the major impacts of climate variability faced my rice farmers and these highly caused a change or reduction in rice productivity. The study also revealed that most rice farmers use artificial fertilizers, spray using pesticides and also dig channels through the rice fields and despite their inventions, the farmers suggested that the government and other stakeholders like NGOs should mainly support them with irrigation pumps.