Perceptions and Practices of Irish Potato Farmers on Mitigating the Impacts of Climate Change and Land Degradation in Kabale District, Southwestern Uganda

Introduction

Environmental degradation is one of the most serious threats to sustainable development in Uganda, with adverse impacts on environment, crop health, food security, economic activities, natural resources, and physical infrastructure [1]. Tropical countries like Uganda are vulnerable to climate change impacts, particularly to changes in rainfall amounts and due to natural resource dependence. Uganda’s annual population growth is about 3.5% while the annual growth rate of food production is about 1.5%. This affects the accessibility to food, its availability and utilization systems [2]. Crop production tends to decline with rising temperatures, erratic and uncertain rainfall regimes. This situation is exacerbated by other factors such as soil erosion. This affects crop productivity in many highland areas of East Africa including the fragile highlands of Kigezi in Southwestern Uganda [3]. The study was conducted in Kabale district, in the Kigezi region which is one of the hilly areas that is found in Southwestern Uganda.

In terms of climate, the Kigezi region at large has temperatures which range between 19-23 degrees Celsius with humidity of about 80%, an altitude of approximately 410 kilometres above sea level and a total rainfall of 193.16mm with 255.7 rainy days per year [4]. The Kigezi region has a population density of about 300 per km2 [5]. It is one of the most densely populated areas in Uganda with 70% of the population engaged in subsistence farming. Apart from the Irish potato, the eight major crops grown in the Kigezi highlands over time include maize, beans, cabbage, sweet potatoes, sorghum peas, wheat and bananas [6]. Being a highland area, the Kigezi region is affected by soil erosion, majorly in the districts of Kabale, Kanungu, Kisoro, Rukungiri and Rukiga; and elsewhere in Uganda, the Mount Elgon region in Mbale and the Mount Rwenzori region [6]. In most of these areas, erosion is caused by water, but there are other districts, not highland areas, like Karamoja and Kaabong, where erosion is caused by wind. Cultivation by farmers is done on steep slopes which has resulted in soil erosion and land degradation.

When it rains the most fertile soil is washed away by moving water which reduces fertility. Recently, climate change has worsened the problem of heavy rains on bare soils during the planting season and prolonged droughts in the growing season [7]. Due to reduced crop yields because of the problem of land degradation compounded by climate change, farmers must consider solutions on how to reduce their problems. Therefore, there is a need to find out their perception of the problems they are facing, and the possible solutions on how these problems can be solved or mitigated. The Irish potato is one of the crops that can easily be grown by people in Kabale district in the sub counties of Kamuganguzi; Katuna Town Council; Southern and Northern Central Divisions, Buhara, Kitumba, Kyanamira, Kahungye, Maziba, Ryakarimira, Kaharo and Butanda. However, of these subcounties, 6 are the major producers of Irish potatoes, namely, Buhara, Ryakarimira, Katuna Town Council, Kitumba, Southern Division and Kaharo [8]. The goal of our study was to identify farmers’ perceptions and practices towards Irish potato growing in relation to the impact of climate changes and land degradation in Kabale district.

Material and Methods

Field Visits and Physical Observation

We visited the farmers’ fields to directly observe the different situations on the farmers’ fields, particularly the signs of land degradation and the strategies to manage it; as well as any observable effects of climate change and how the farmers were mitigating these effects. This helped us obtain clear information, especially after rainfall when we would observe the damage caused by the rains. We were able to make observations and recordings to get the generation of the problems that are currently being faced by the farmers and identifying the strategies that farmers were using to limit them.

Selection of Interviewee Farmers and Focus Groups Individual farmers

Sixteen Irish potato farmers were purposively selected from Kabale district for the administration of a checklist that we had drafted to collect the data. The selection began with contacting personally known farmers who then directed us to the other farmers we could visit.

Focus Group Discussions

We selected six farmer groups from Kabale district, one from each of the six sub counties, the major producers of Irish potatoes in the district. Each group had ten people to give us the answers for the questions we administered from the checklist. The selection criterion was purposive, targeting genuine Irish potato farmers in the area.

Interviewing Using a Checklist

We interviewed the selected farmers with a checklist consisting of the following questions:
a) Question 1: According to your opinion, why do you like growing Irish potatoes?
b) Question 2: Are you a large-scale farmer or small-scale farmer?
c) Question 3: Which practices do you use in planting your Irish potatoes?
d) Question 4: What do you think are the contributions of Irish potato growing on environmental degradation and climate change?
e) Question 5: As a farmer, which advice do you give us to regulate the rate of environmental degradation and mitigate climate changes?

Results and Discussion

Field Observations

Tyrosol, 3-hydroxytirosol, luteolin 7 glucoside, luteolin, oloeuropein, verbascoside, p-cumaric acid, vanillic acid, and squalene were purchased from Sigma-Aldrich Inc. (St. Louis, MO, USA).

We observed different things in the farmers’ fields including several problems and the different coping strategies to manage these problems:
a) Different diseases like Irish potato blight and wilting (Figure 2).
b) Running water created some gullies causing damage and the farmers had implemented strategies such as constructing fanya kyiini (Figure 3) and making raised beds for crop growing with in the gardens to stop the velocity of running water within the fields (Figure 4). Fanya kyiini is the making of trenches in the soil to reduce the velocity of water runoff.

Results from Farmers Individual Farmers

Responses of the 16 farmers from the checklist interview are presented and discussed as follows, according to each question. Farmers were responding positively to the questions that we had drafted. Food security was the most common response from the farmers, who liked planting Irish potatoes for food security. Four responded that they grow them for income generation (Table 1). In addition, it is a particularly suitable crop considering that it has quick maturity which helps to efficiently maintain food security in the region. Kigezi being hilly, most of the area is occupied by volcanic soils which are fertile making most of the farmers adopt agriculture for food security [9].

Table 1:Responses of farmers to question 1: According to your opinion, why do you like growing Irish potatoes?

Question 2: Are you a large-scale farmer or small-scale farmer?
All the farmers interviewed were small scale farmers. This is probably due to limited land since Kabale district has a relatively high population. Kabale district is one of the most populated districts in the Kigezi region with a high population growth rate making land for agriculture very scarce hence farmers grow Irish potatoes majorly for subsistence and a few surpluses for sale (Table 2). The highest response (9) on the practices the farmers use in Irish potato cultivation was disease and pest control (mainly application of fungicides) while the rest were focusing mainly on activities to do with planting such as seed selection and tillage. Farmers focus mostly on disease and pest control because most of the diseases like wilt are very dangerous to the shoots as they can lead to the total death of the plant before the establishment of tubers, and this can lead to losses which discourages farmers from investment. Potato is vulnerable to a wide range of pathogenic organisms, all of which can cause severe quality and yield losses.

The susceptibility of crops to diseases is influenced by changes in temperature and moisture [10]. When under water stress the plants are most susceptible to disease attack. Consequently, potato production is highly reliant on pesticide use, and this has a negative effect on the sustainability of the crop production. To mitigate these problems, effective and evidence-based crop protection recommendations need to be provided to growers. By putting the control measures, farmers will maximize production and productivity hence encouraging investment among other people (Table 3). The major response (10) from the farmers was pollution from chemicals contaminating the air, water and soil, leading to various adverse effects on different organisms like humans and plants. This reduces the performance of these organisms and affects both soil chemical and physical properties. Pollution can make the air quality to be used by the living organisms very low due to accumulation of acids and toxins within the air. Even during application of the chemicals, the surrounding area gets polluted, also affecting the people themselves.

Table 2:Responses of farmers to question 3: Which practices do you use in planting your Irish potatoes?

Table 3:Responses of farmers to question 4: What do you think are the contributions of Irish potato growing on environmental degradation and climate change?

The soil is also polluted by the chemicals thus affecting the growth rate of crops [11]. Other farmers were focusing on the destruction of biodiversity through swamp reclamation. According to the National Environmental Management Authority, most of the swamps in Kabale are being cleared for agriculture and particularly Irish potato growing because the population has increased and there is more need for food to sustain the growing population. A few others mentioned soil erosion and exhaustion among other responses (Table 4). The highest responses of 5 were those concerning mulching, tree planting, minimum tillage, and application of organic manures to bind the soil particles together. Organic fertilization is mostly liked by farmers because of its potential to hold more water within the soil, binding the soil particles together, changing the soil colour to black helping it to attract more sunlight responsible for raising the soil temperature and so many others including the following; which are also enhanced by mulching and minimum tillage:

Table 4:Responses of farmers to question 5: As a farmer, which advice do you give us to regulate the rate of environmental degradation and mitigate climate change?

a) Soil Fertility and Productivity: Organic matter enhances soil fertility by providing essential nutrients for plant growth. It acts as a reservoir of nutrients, releasing them gradually as needed by plants. Soils rich in organic matter support higher crop yields and healthier vegetation.
b) Physical Properties of Soil: Organic matter improves soil structure by binding soil particles into aggregates. These aggregates create pore spaces, allowing water, air, and roots to move freely. Good soil structure enhances water retention, drainage, and aeration. Agroforestry and tree planting on the slopes helps to hold the soil together thus reducing the rate of soil erosion. The agroforestry trees provide other benefits such as cattle feed, while other trees provide fuelwood and timber.

Focus Group Discussions

(Table 5) Most of the farmer groups grow Irish potatoes for food as evidenced by their majority response. Others mentioned disease control, that they have a curative effect on blood sugar and pressure control, and that they may improve digestive health as well as providing carbohydrates. They are also liked because they are quick maturing and are a source of income. According to Elong (2021), the demand for Irish potatoes is estimated to be over 850,000 Mt per annum with urban demand outpacing rural demand. With the increasing urbanization, changing eating habits by the majority youth and high population growth, chips consumption is set to rise by over 50% in the coming period offering the potato industry huge opportunities for enterprise development and economic growth. NAADS supports the Irish potato development interventions by distributing potato seed of improved varieties with preferred end user characteristics. It also supports farmers, small and medium enterprises to engage in organized production, marketing, and processing of Irish potatoes.

Table 5:Responses of farmers to question 1: According to your opinion, why do you like growing Irish potatoes?

This makes the best use of Irish potatoes being the source of food as all the farmer groups stated. It can also be used as a staple for some families due to quick maturity of three months hence making farmers easily supply their markets as well as getting food for their children. The high population in Kigezi region, Kabale district inclusive, has also led to the trader’s source Irish potatoes from eastern Uganda in order to supply to the increasing population and cater for the lives of the available population.

Question 2: Are you a large-scale farmer or small-scale farmer?
As applied to combined efforts in agriculture, farmers try to merge the scattered plots of different farmers in form of consolidation for a common goal of planting Irish potatoes. This helps them to have enough land for cultivation of Irish potatoes. This further facilitates in marketing of Irish potatoes to different communities because they gain a high market search ability to different communities in need of Irish potatoes since they can be used to serve different purposes like food, value addition, feeding animals, and more to that for export. In addition, when farmers form groups, it is easy for the government to support them with some funds and incentives in order to boost agriculture production. This is also to increase agricultural exports as well as increasing the growth and development of agro-based industries, especially those involved in value addition like making chips (Table 6).

Table 6:Responses of farmers to question 3: Which practices do you use in planting your Irish potatoes?

Farmer groups put much emphasis on disease control. Most of Irish potato diseases can spread from one crop to another, e. g. Irish potato blight and wilt. These diseases may cause serious losses to farmers if not controlled. This makes farmer groups invest in disease control measures like application of fungicides in the gardens in order to optimize production and support the growing population since Kabale district is highly populated with a total population of 593,160 people there is more need for food to support the population (Table 7)..

Table 7:Responses of farmers to question 4: What do you think are the contributions of Irish potato growing on environmental degradation and climate change?

Table 8:Responses of farmers to question 5: As a farmer, which advice do you give us to regulate the rate of environmental degradation and mitigate climate changes?

Farmer groups stated that environmentally, Irish potatoes are causing air pollution and soil erosion. This is because farmers do apply inorganic fertilizers and synthetic fungicides to protect crops against diseases which cause heavy losses due to premature death of the plants. Among the cultivation practices on how diseases in Irish potatoes can be controlled are seed selection, crop rotation and removing the debris of Irish potatoes from the gardens before planting. In addition, farmers in the groups say that growing Irish potatoes can lead to soil erosion due to continuous cultivation, land fragmentation and the steep slopes in the district [12]. The hilly nature makes the water attain a high velocity leading to landslides and soil erosion as it was shown in (Figure 1), where water was running rapidly downslope in the farmers’ fields (Table 8).

Most of the farmers’ responses from these groups were on the good farming practices to restore the soil for sustainable utilization. Due to the increased fertility rates in women, population is becoming very high creating pressure on land making the areas densely populated [13], in Kabale district. If Irish potato growing is to be more beneficial to farmers, they must adhere to good farming practices to reduce the incidence of disease outbreaks and protect the soil from getting exhausted in terms of nutrients, soil health and ecosystem resilience at large. By following these practices, farmers can achieve high economic returns out of their investments through using organic fertilization that has a high impact on the soil in terms of pH, water holding capacity, soil colour and other soil living organisms [14-16].

Discussion

a) Farmers are majorly producing Irish potatoes for food to boost food security in their homes.
b) Seed selection is important in the practice of raising Irish potatoes.
c) Practicing agroforestry will help to reduce the rate of soil erosion and to boost nutrient recycling.
d) Farmers encourage the use of good agronomic practices to reduce the rate of environmental degradation. These practices include organic farming, seed selection, contour ploughing, bush fallowing and several others as stated in the Table for the Q5 responses.
e) Farmers’ collaboration through making of groups can lead to large scale farming as was stated under responses from groups on Q2; that all farmer groups can be on a large-scale farming.

Recommendations

Based on our findings, we formulated recommendations on what can be done to control the increased rate of environmental degradation and to mitigate the effects of climate change:
a) Practicing mulching to conserve water in the soil and increase the work of microorganisms.
b) Practicing crop rotation to conserve the soil structure which helps to improve the water holding capacity of the soil.
c) Use of organic manures instead of inorganic fertilizers.
d) Practicing bush fallowing to facilitate the regaining of soil fertility and water infiltration.
e) Addition of organic matter into the soil to facilitate the work of living organisms within the soil
f) Punishing law breakers against the poor use of natural resources like swamp reclamation.
g) Controlled bush burning to avoid too much accumulation of smoke in the atmosphere which causes ozone depression.
h) Controlled grazing to avoid the cases of landslides and soil erosion.
i) Construction of dams on rivers to limit the speed of water, hence reducing flooding in the low-lying areas.
j) Construction of ridges and contours around the mountain slopes which disrupt water movement and velocity making water to attain a low speed that reduces the erosive action and construction of diversion channels to limit the amount of water moving in one direction.

Areas Recommended for Further Study [Knowledge Gaps]

a) The hindrances that stop farmers from participating in market and research analysis.
b) The relationships between agronomic practices and environmental changes.
c) What can be done to motivate small scale farmers to be involved in large scale farming?

Acknowledgement

This work was made in the context of the Erasmus+ project 2023-1-SK01-KA171-HED-000147039, KEGA 002TU Z-4/2022 and Project VEGA 1/0575/25.

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