Anthony Egeru

• PhD Dryland Resources Management
• Lecturer at Makerere University

Background Measuring satisfaction with health service delivery in fragile communities provides an opportunity to improve the resilience of health systems to threats including climate change. Additionally, understanding factors associated with the choice of response strategies to certain public health threats provides an opportunity to design contex...

Uganda reported its first case of COVID-19 on 21 March 2020 and thereafter, experienced three waves with varied prevalence and effects. However, the spatial analysis of COVID-19 cases over Uganda remained unexplored. This study analyzed the spatial distribution of COVID-19 cases, determined hotspot locations, and performed a projection of the poten...

This article is inspired by the debate on curriculum innovation for graduate training, emerging out of linkages between universities and agribusiness development actors, targeting entrepreneurial action and employability of graduates. Experiences from implementation of a three-year joint project are enriched by a desk review, stakeholder feedback a...

Sub-Saharan Africa is facing an expected doubling of human population and tripling of food demand over the next quarter century, posing a range of severe environmental, political, and socio-economic challenges. In some cases, key Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) are in direct conflict, raising difficult policy and funding decisions, particularl...

The increasing demand for ornamental, cosmetic and pharmaceutical products is driving 20 exploitation of plant species globally. Sub-Saharan Africa comprises unique, and valuable plant resources and 21 is now a target of plant resource depletion. African Sandalwood (Osyris lanceolata), a multipurpose and 22 1.drought tolerant species has seen incre...

Adaptive capacity provides a pivotal role in resilience building for socio-ecological systems to overcome both natural and anthropogenic disturbances. Persistent droughts increasingly cause abrupt changes in communities’ ability to mobilize scarce resources, anticipate or respond to perceived or current effects over time. This paper examines the fa...

The impact of floods on households in Uganda is becoming increasingly severe. It is often assumed that people who reside in a riverine area have adapted to flood pulses. However, in most cases, household-level risk reduction strategies are inadequate for ensuring a livelihood resilient to floods. The objective of this study was to investigate the d...

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Understanding spatio-temporal land use land cover change is vital in responding to the dynamic and complex global environmental change that is having diverse effects on integrity of most landscapes. A study was conducted in the Budongo - Bugoma landscape to assess spatio-temporal patterns of land use land cover change using supervised image classif...

Understanding the evolution of land use/land cover change (LULCC) and how it shapes current and future ecosystem services (ES) supply potential remains critical in sustainable natural resource management. Community perception of historic LULCC was reconciled with previous study via remote sensing/geographical information systems using recall data i...

This study was conducted to map flood inundation areas along the Manafwa River, Eastern Uganda using HECRAS integrated with the SWAT model. The study mainly sought to evaluate the predictive capacity of SWAT by comparisons with streamflow observations and to derive, using HECRAS, the flood inundation maps. Changes in Land-use/cover showed by decrea...

Climate-smart agriculture (CSA) is one of the innovative approaches for sustainably increasing the agricultural productivity, improving livelihoods and incomes of farmers, while at the same time improving resilience and contributing to climate change mitigation. In spite of the fact that there is neither explicit policy nor practices branded as CSA...

Maize (Zea mays L.) productivity is constrained by water shortages in the predominantly rainfed agriculture of the tropical semi-arid Ruzizi Plain, in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). The region is characterized by a high seasonal and inter-annual rainfall variability and a frequent occurrence of consecutive dry days within growing s...

This study assessed the factors associated with value addition and product upgrading of shea nut in northern Uganda. We adopted a cross-sectional research design using a multi-stage sampling approach and a structured interviewer-administered questionnaire to collect data from 252 respondents. The results show that 84% of shea nut collectors practis...

Climate-smart agriculture (CSA) is fronted as a sustainable, transformative, and technologically innovative approach that increases agricultural productivity, income and enhances greenhouse gas mitigation. However, there is limited micro-level evidence on the effects of the adoption of CSA on food security despite intensified promotion efforts in U...

Concerns have been raised on the effectiveness and sustainability of Soil and Water Conservation (SWC) practices as adaptation options to climate change and high intra− and inter−annual rainfall variabilities in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). This study was conducted in the Ruzizi Plain, a dryland area, to assess the performance of mai...

Sustainable rangeland management requires understanding the nature of human-ecosystem interactions and local communities’ perspectives regarding evolving changes. This study integrated perceptions from the local community and remote sensing to characterize the extent and drivers of land use and land cover (LULC) changes in the rangelands of Nakason...

This study aimed at modeling scenarios of future land use and land cover (LULC) change and estimating ecosystem service (ES) values for the year 2051 compared to 2021 in Central Ethiopia. The future LULC changes for the year 2051 were simulated for four scenarios, namely Business-as-Usual (BAU), Rapid Agricultural Expansion (RAE), Ecosystems Protec...

Climate smart villages (CSVs) are new and promising approaches to tackle the negative repercussions of climate change and to tackle the food insecurity that affects close to one billion people globally. CSVs are envisaged to result into empowerment of participating farmers; however, given the novelty of this concept in different geographical sphere...

The debate on integration of shade trees on farmers’ fields is lately becoming more pronounced due to the increasing land fragmentation, particularly in the highlands where the number of trees on farm is reducing drastically. In these farmlands, the choice of shade trees is the result of complex farmers’ analyses and valuation of tradeoffs among th...

Sustainable wetland management is a focus of many countries worldwide. These mainly use protection as a key policy directive for conservation. However, avoidance directives tend to disenfranchise local populations. Thus, such management is often resisted and rarely effective. Tailoring management strategies to user preferences allows conservation t...

Sustainable agricultural intensification (SAI) has been hailed as the solution to increasing crop productivity among farmers. Despite the significant promotion, there still remains a dearth of information on the adoption and intensity of SAI in Zambia. This study sought to identify factors that influence farmers’ adoption of SAI practices and inten...

Adaptation framing remains one of the major challenges to achieving greater implementation of adaptation initiatives in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). Using an integrated analytical framework that frames adaptation indicators into three dimensions; adaptive, absorptive and transformative capacities, we analysed the adaptation diversity in Karamoja sub-r...

Rangelands are known for their potential in mitigating rising atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2) concentrations in the world. The objective of this study was to investigate the patterns of soil organic carbon (SOC) and nitrogen (N) in rangelands under traditional management systems in Karamoja sub-region in Uganda, with a view to facilitating the dev...

Integration of camel (Camelus dromedarius) production in the traditional livestock systems is increasingly gaining significance as a strategy for household adaptation to prolonged and recurrent droughts in African arid and semi-arid lands. There is increasing interest in promoting camels as a strategy to mitigate the effects of prolonged droughts i...

Malaria burden remains one of the major public health challenges in sub-Saharan Africa, Uganda inclusive. Uganda has the 3 rd highest global disease cases estimated to be 225 million and the 8 th highest level of deaths equivalent to 781,000 per year. Malaria remains a leading cause of morbidity and mortality in Uganda, accounting for 30-50% of out...

This study assessed the susceptibility of Anopheles mosquitoes to LLINs and IRS as vector control interventions used in Tororo and Busia district. Samples of Anopheles mosquito larvae were collected from various breeding grounds and reared in an insectary. Emerged adults were dissected under a stereoscopic microscope and identified using standardiz...

Grazing management strategies tend to have different effects on rangeland plant production. Changes in grazing management can, therefore, affect the carbon stock potential of rangelands. Despite rangeland ecosystems being important global sinks for carbon, we know relatively little about the effect of traditional grazing management practices on the...

Abstract: Land degradation and discontinuation of ecosystem services (ES) are a common phenomenon that causes socio-economic and environmental problems in Ethiopia. However, a dearth of information is known about how ES are changing from the past to the future with regard to land use land cover (LULC) changes. This study aimed at estimating the val...

Agricultural practices play a major role in influencing soil fauna abundance and diversity. Interest in these practices has increased owing to the growing need for sustainable agricultural systems in this era of increasing agricultural intensification. In this study, two paddy rice farming pathways (smallholder and large-scale commercial) and an ad...

This book is the culmination of a collaborative effort to develop an updated volume providing (i) sound analyses of current trends and developments in the tertiary agricultural education (TAE) sector and (ii) direction and focus for future initiatives to strengthen the sector in Africa. Part I (chapter 1) begins with an introduction on agriculture...

The increasing demand for ornamental, cosmetic and pharmaceutical products is driving exploitation of plant species globally. Sub-Saharan Africa harbours unique and valuable plant resources and is now a target of plant resource depletion. African Sandalwood (Osyris lanceolata), a multi-purpose and drought-tolerant species, has seen increased exploi...

Land use/cover (LULC) change is a major concern in Africa’s river basins and policy makers, environmentalists and other stakeholders tackling biodiversity and sustainable development issues in these watersheds require accurate information on past, present and future LULC projections to develop management strategies for the concerned watersheds. Thi...

Afzelia africana Sm. is a highly valued multi-purpose and overexploited tree species in Africa. Ethnobotany of A. africana can guide its sustainable usage, yet there is limited information on such aspect for the species in Uganda. Here, we assessed use values of A. africana and users’ traditional knowledge, and how they relate to plant parts and so...

Objective We explored the effect of different land uses on soil macro fauna species richness, abundance and diversity in Mount Elgon areas of Kween District, Uganda. Results Species richness was higher on the subsurface of the different land uses than belowground. A total of 647 individuals of both subsurface and belowground macro fauna were identi...

Abstract Recurrent and prolonged droughts have exacerbated the problems of pasture and water scarcity in arid and semi-arid lands (ASALs), hence, the need for immediate and long-term adaption strategies to such shocks. Camels are increasingly being integrated into mainstream livestock production systems as an adaptation strategy to droughts. Howeve...

Abstract Many emerging and re-emerging zoonotic infectious diseases occur in Africa. These are projected to increase as human–animal host contact increases owing to increasing environmental degradation that shrinks nature habitats for wildlife over the continent. The current outbreak of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2) r...

Phenological properties are critical in understanding global environmental change patterns. This study analyzed phenological dynamics in a savannah dominated semi-arid environment of Uganda. We used moderate-resolution imaging spectroradiometer normalized difference vegetation index (MODIS NDVI) imagery. TIMESAT program was used to analyse the imag...

Climate change is considered to be one of a principle reason for spread of invasive alien species. Thus, it is essential to examine potential invasion dynamics of Prosopis juliflora at continental scale under climate change scenario to better guide management of the invasive species. A consensus model derived from five models were used to examine t...

Ecosystems provide climate-change adaptation opportunities including ecosystem services, adaptation benefits and livelihood improvement especially for natural resource dependent communities. To contribute to the understanding of location specific adaptation processes of predominantly agro-pastoralists, a study was carried out in the central cattle...

Background Malaria remains a major tropical vector-borne disease of immense public health concern owing to its debilitating effects in sub-Saharan Africa. Over the past 30 years, the high altitude areas in Eastern Africa have been reported to experience increased cases of malaria. Governments including that of the Republic of Uganda have responded...

Background: COVID-19 continues to wreak havoc in different countries across the world, claiming thousands of lives, increasing morbidity and disrupting lifestyles. The global scientific community is in urgent need of relevant evidence, to understand the challenges and knowledge gaps, as well as the opportunities to contain the spread of the virus....

Background: COVID-19 continues to wreak havoc in different countries across the world, claiming thousands of lives, increasing morbidity and disrupting lifestyles. The global scientific community is in urgent need of relevant evidence, to understand the challenges and knowledge gaps, as well as the opportunities to contain the spread of the virus....

Over 70% of Uganda is infested by the tsetse fly, which has negative effects on human and livestock health. From colonial to post-independent Uganda, the Government of Uganda has worked to eradicate the tsetse menace. Despite these efforts, recent veterinary reports from the Karamoja sub-region have indicated widespread tsetse invasion. This study...

Background Malaria remains a major tropical vector-borne disease of immense public health concern owing to its debilitating effects in sub-Saharan Africa. In the recent past, the high altitude areas in Eastern Africa have been reported to experience dramatic cases of malaria. However, its patterns following intensified control and prevention interv...

Soil properties contribute to the widely recognised resilience of semiarid areas. However, limited attention has been given in providing a scientific basis of how semiarid soil properties in the various land covers occur and how they influence forage quantity. is study investigated the influence of different soil properties and land cover types on...

Long-term trend analysis at local scale for rainfall and temperature is critical for detecting climate change patterns. This study analysed historical (1980–2009), near future (2010–2039), mid- (1940–2069) and end-century (2070–2099) rainfall and temperature over Karamoja sub-region. The Modern Era-Retrospective Analysis for Research and Applicatio...

This paper analyses Uganda’s rangeland policies and their ecological and socio-economic consequences, beginning in pre-colonial times. The paper interrogates what informed these policies, their objectives and outcomes that have been realized. Policy actions are recommended to correct the deficiencies identified in the analysis. This analysis shows...

Spices have always been used for their flavor-enhancement characteristics and for their medicinal properties. In Benin, scientific research on spices is scarce, despite their importance in the local population’s daily needs. This study investigated the diversity of wild spices and documented the associated traditional knowledge that can be used for...

Information on forest structure is fundamentally important to track successional vegetation dynamics for efficient forest management. This study reports on vegetation characteristics, dominance patterns and species height growth in a northern mistbelt forest type in South Africa. Common alpha-diversity indices (species richness and Shannon–Weiner d...

Camel production is a potential avenue for improved food and income security in dryland areas of East Africa. Despite this potential, there is a dearth of information on the increasing choice of camel production among pastoralists in the region. Camel-owning households were obtained through snowball sampling approach whereas those without camels we...

•We present information useful to various stakeholders, including land managers, agency personnel, practitioners, and researchers, as it presents methodology for○Determining the best period for hay harvest corresponding to peak productivity of the vegetation in rangelands;○Estimating the amount of hay available (biomass) at peak productivity, using...

Background Drought is regarded as a leading cause of food insecurity affecting about 220 million people in sub-Saharan Africa. Drought early warning systems (DEWSs) have the potential to strengthen capacity of communities in managing and reducing drought effects through building preparedness and providing coping strategies. The Karamoja subregion i...

Drought Early Warning Systems (DEWS) are instrumental in drought mitigation because they provide drought-prone communities with information on how to mitigate and cope with drought. This study assesses the quality of DEWS information in the Karamoja sub-region of Uganda. Data were collected from 173 households that accessed information from DEWS in...

Camels have the potential to increase the resilience of pastoral communities to the impacts of climate variability and change. Despite this potential, there is limited documentation of the camel forage species, their availability and distribution. The study was conducted in Karamoja sub-region in Uganda and involved assessment of vegetation with in...

This study identified the major options adopted by households in the rangelands of Uganda to meet their food needs, the factors that affect their choices and barriers to making use of various choices. A cross-sectional survey using semi-structured questionnaires was administered among 180 pastoral households in selected rangeland area of Uganda. Th...

Drought episodes have been on the increase in the semi-arid areas of Uganda with harmful effects like crop failure, and human and livestock mortality, among others. There are barely any studies that have examined why agro-pastoral communities take specific actions in coping with drought. This study examined the factors influencing the choice of cop...

This article was inspired by a dialogue that transpired during the 5th All Africa Higher Education Week and Biennial Conference of the Regional Universities Forum for Capacity Building in Agriculture (RUFORUM), held in October 2016. The conference gathered over 850 participants from 72 countries and is usually a convening event that brings together...

Precipitation, a very important weather parameter is often variable, resulting into droughts and floods as extreme weather events in Uganda. These are causing great economic impact especially on agriculture and water resources. Meteorological drought is a creeping hazard; it develops slowly and has a prolonged existence leading to the development o...

Climate Research for Development in Africa (CR4D) represents a paradigm shift in dealing with climate change and development in Africa. It provides a mechanism for integrating Africa wide climate research initiatives, bringing both the scientists and institutions including development actors together to deliver on priority end user needs. In this p...

By 2025, every smallest personal items to the largest continents, everything, and everywhere will be digitally connected, and responsive to people's wants and likes. Universities have no choice but to increase the use and availability of knowledge and information digitally. This study has shown that there has been growth in the volume of resources...

This study examined why rural small holders have remained hostages to subsistence cultivation in Serere District, Eastern Uganda. Four hundred and ninety (490) subsistence holders were selected and individual interviews conducted to identify the diversity of livelihood sources and other socioeconomic dynamics of subsistence livelihood. Focused Grou...

African Universities are facing an unprecedented growth in enrolment that has more than doubled in the last decade alone. This growth pattern has affected the teaching, learning, supervision and mentorship processes as on average one professor has at least 50% more students compared to the global average. The Regional Universities Forum for Capacit...

Smallholder farmers typify agricultural production in Uganda.

Camels thrive best in arid and semi-arid lands of Africa and have the potential to reduce the vulnerability of pastoral communities to impacts of climate change and variability. The study was conducted in Karamoja sub-region and involved assessment of vegetation with intent to characterize the foraging range for the camels. The camel grazing area w...

Climate change has continued to be a global challenge with the effects manifested to a greater extent in the arid and semi-arid areas like Karamoja. In these areas, livestock is the key livelihood option which is greatly affected by the variations in climate, thus potentially making livestock less effective as a sustainable livelihood option. This...

Despite being recognised as one of the key components for unlocking Africa's development, higher education in sub-Saharan Africa has continued to be plagued by low student-academic staff ratio that is affecting quality of training and skills development. This situation is being orchestrated by increased enrolment into higher education institutions...

Africa remains an intensely agrarian continent, with two-thirds of its people directly or indirectly deriving their livelihood from agriculture. Higher agricultural education has thus emphasised production of graduates with the requisite skills to drive agricultural development. Despite these efforts, too few graduates in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) h...

Climate change is one of the potent challenges facing smallholder farmers in sub-Saharan Africa in the recent past owing to the pattern and magnitude with which it presents the extreme events such as floods and drought. This review finds a general consensus that climate change is already happening in the region and the projections in the early, mid...

Low input pastoral production systems rely exclusively on natural forage resources in space and time. Information on the abundance and diversity of such pastures is vital in improving livestock production and managing the biodiversity of grazing landscapes. This study documented grass and browse forage species utilised in pastoral Karamoja, and det...

Rangelands are important ecosystems as they offer livelihood options and food security to many people in Uganda. There is barely any study that has analyzed the intricate relationship between household food basket, income and rangelands in Uganda. This study determined the contribution of rangelands to household food basket and income in Nakaseke d...

A presentation made at the University of Dar es Salaam.

Pastoralists in East Africa face a range of stressors, climate variability and change being one of them. Effective climate risk management involves managing the full range of variability and balancing hazard management with efforts to capitalize on opportunity; climate risk management information is central in this process. In this study, pastorali...

Low-input pastoral production systems provide up to 90 % of livestock and livestock products consumed in Uganda. However, pastoral communities are increasingly faced with the challenge of meeting their livestock needs in terms of forage, a situation exacerbated by climatic variability. The study identified the patterns of forage availability and qu...