Majaliwa J. G. Mwanjalolo

RUFORUM · RANCH program

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...

The review aimed at understanding landscape diversity in the face of global population pressure, agricultural land shortages, food insecurity, and climate insecurity. We used published literature to determine whether landscape diversity improves resilience to climate change. Literature searches were performed using the Science Direct database, Goog...

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...

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...

Tree species increases the number of ecological niches and associated species such as understory plants and animals hence, increased landscape ecosystem diversity. Rapid environmental and economic changes are posing serious dangers to ecosystems and economic systems around the world. This has resulted in the extinction of species, droughts, and pri...

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...

Coffee-based farming systems (CBFS) support smallholder farmers through mainly coffee growing with integration of other food crops and livestock. Climate change is expected to ravage crop suitability in several agroecological zones, posing a threat to national earnings and livelihoods. However, previous studies have mainly considered crop-specific...

The degradation of soil, vegetation and socio-economic transformations are a huge threat to Africa’s land production. This study aimed to (i) assess the soil and land productivity of standing biomass and (ii) determine the effect of rainfall on the standing biomass in Eastern Africa. Soil productivity was determined using the Soil Productivity Inde...

With climate change, maize production is becoming more constrained by limited water availability especially in rainfed production systems. Climate Smart Agriculture (CSA) practices have potential to enhance water availability and water use efficiency in rainfed production systems, but their efficiencies have not been adequately investigated. The st...

Crop models are crucial in assessing the reliability and sustainability of soil water conservation practices. The AquaCrop model was tested and validated for maize productivity under the selected climate smart agriculture (CSA) practices in the rainfed production systems. The model was validated using final biomass (B) and grain yield (GY) data fro...

Crop models are crucial in assessing the reliability and sustainability of soil water conservation practices. The AquaCrop model was tested and validated for maize productivity under the selected climate smart agriculture (CSA) practices in the rainfed production systems. The model was validated using final biomass (B) and grain yield (GY) data fro...

Experimental evidence of nutrient limitations on primary productivity in Afrotropical forests is rare and globally underrepresented, yet are crucial for understanding constraints to terrestrial carbon uptake. In an ecosystem-scale nutrient manipulation experiment, we assessed the early responses of tree growth rates among different tree sizes, taxo...

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...

In sub-humid regions, declining maize (Zea mays L.) yield is majorly attributed to unreliable rainfall and high evapotranspiration demand during critical growth stages. However, there are limited farm technologies for conserving soil water and increasing water use efficiency (WUE) in rainfed production systems amidst a changing climate. This study...

Shade trees in coffee farms are promoted worldwide for ecological sustainability and adaptation to climate change. However, contradicting reports on the effects of shade trees in coffee agroforestry systems are emanating from Arabica coffee (Coffea arabica) farmers. Therefore, this study: (1) characterized the shade trees in Arabica coffee-based ag...

Soil water deficit is a major production-limiting factor in the predominantly rainfed agriculture of the Ruzizi plain, eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). Appropriate soil and water conservation (SWC) practices would be a valuable option for maximizing water uptake by plants in the context of water demand and supply unbalance. This study as...

Patterns of soil properties in highland environments remain poorly understood and limited knowledge exists on soil quality with respect to land use systems and topographic configurations. In this study, patterns of 12 surface soil physicochemical properties were assessed over a period of three years with respect to land use systems and toposequence...

Limited studies in East Africa and particularly in Uganda have been carried out to determine and map water use and demands. This study aimed at assessing the impact of management options on sustainable water allocation in environmentally sensitive catchments of Mubuku and Sebwe of Lake Edward-George basin in Western Uganda. We used hydro-meteorolog...

The variabilities in rainfall and temperature in a catchment affect water availability and sustainability. This study assessed the variabilities in rainfall and temperature (1981–2015) and river flow (1998–2015) in the Sipi sub-catchment on annual and seasonal scales. Observed daily rainfall and temperature data for Buginyanya and Kapchorwa weather...

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...

The semi-arid Lokere and Lokok catchments in northeastern Uganda are experiencing land use andland cover (LULC) change driven by policies and actions aimed at pastoralist sedentarisation. Whilethese efforts present a trajectory of a landscape dominated by farming, livestock herding or grazingpersists. The objective of this study was to project medi...

This reviewe of Land Use Land Cover Change (LULCC) studies in Uganda indicate agriculture, forest, grassland, and woodland as the major land use and land cover types. Central Uganda is the most studied region (15%), followed by western (14), eastern (10), and northern Uganda (3). District scale studies were (48%), catchment (19%), forest (17%), nat...

The impact of climate and land use/land cover (LULC) change continues to threaten water resources availability for the agriculturally used inland valley wetlands and their catchments in East Africa. This study assessed climate and LULC change impacts on the hydrological processes of a tropical headwater inland valley catchment in Uganda. The hydrol...

This study examines three soil classification systems - Buganda, World Reference Base, and US Soil Taxonomy - in order to evaluate their relative strengths and feasibility for making linkages between them. Nine field sites and 16 pedons were considered across the soil landscapes of the Buganda catena. Each identified field pedon diagnostic horizons...

Fresh water resources and limited across the globe. They are threatened by agriculture, economic development and climate change. Measure to sustainably manage water resources are not well documented. This review aimed at analyzing publications from 2000-2019 regarding stakeholders’ involvement as a key for sustainable water resource management. Lit...

The Lokere and Lokok Catchments, which form the mainwatershed in the semiarid Karamoja sub-region of Uganda, are experiencing land use and land cover (LULC) change from extensive livestock production to crop agriculture. This paper assessed the change in LULC in the Catchments during the period 1984-2013 through unsupervised and supervised classifi...

Whereas adaptation to climate variability takes center stage in the agricultural development discourse, implementation is poorly guided through adoption of ‘one-size-fits-all’ adaptation approaches in coffee landscapes. This study empirically provides evidence of diversity of rural coffee farm-households and climate vulnerabilities in Uganda. We sp...

Anomalies in air temperature and shift in rainfall patterns brought about by climate change are likely to impact agricultural production systems both directly and indirectly. In addition to the direct effect of climate on crop growth and development, weather also affects other processes that may impact on agricultural production systems as a whole....

Climate change is a serious threat to the livelihoods of rural communities, particularly in mountainous areas because they are very sensitive to such changes. In this study, we assessed the household determinants to climate change adaptation drawing from a case study of agricultural adaptation in the Mount Rwenzori area of South Western Uganda. The...

Land use and cover changes influence the livelihood and degradation of fragile ecosystems. The extents of these changes in pattern were investigated in Lake Bunyonyi Catchment which lies in the South Western Highlands of Uganda. The dynamics and magnitude of land use and cover changes were assessed using Landsat (TM/ETM+) satellite images and colle...

Land degradation is rapidly increasing in Southwestern Uganda, leading to the loss of soil productivity, increased water-body pollution and reduced vegetation and wetland cover. Soil erosion is a leading observable indicator of land degradation. This study evaluated runoff, soil, and nutrient losses under the various land uses and landscape positio...

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...

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...

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...

The current agriculture land uses around Kibale National Park forest have been expanding towards the forest area threatening its conservation efforts and this has contributed to crop raiding and destruction to the neighbouring agricultural communities. This study was conducted to identify and assess the suitability of major agricultural land uses a...

The current agriculture land uses around Kibale National Park forest have been expanding towards the forest area threatening its conservation efforts and this has contributed to crop raiding and destruction to the neighbouring agricultural communities. This study was conducted to identify and assess the suitability of major agricultural land uses a...

Highland regions characterized with terraced slopes in East Africa are faced with serious soil and nutrient losses that have affected agricultural productivity. However, limited studies have analysed the soil and nutrient losses on terraced slopes of these humid highland regions. Therefore, this study was conducted to assess the effects of climbing...

Agricultural productivity in Rwenzori mountain area is declining and undermining food security in the region. This trend has been accelerated in recent years due to rapid changes in climatic conditions. Climate change adaptation and coping practices are critical to identifying vulnerable entities and developing practical, well targeted adaptation p...

The study was conducted in the districts of Nakaseke and Nakasongola stratified into four farming systems of crop dominancy, pastoralists, mixed crop and livestock and fishing. The study was guided by two research questions: (1) how do community residents perceive climate change/variability? (2) What is the trend and nature of climate variability a...

The objective of this study was to determine the nature and extent of use of soil conservation practices, and examine the factors determining their adoption by farmers in Southwestern Uganda. We collected data from 853 households in eight sub counties spread out in three districts (Kabale, Kisoro and Ntungamo) through household interviews. The stud...

The multiplicity of land-use/cover changes in reducing the areas covered by vegetation is of growing concern in Uganda today. Consequently, the study intended to determine the magnitude and transition potential of land-use/cover changes in a trans-boundary river Sio catchment. The magnitude of land-use/cover changes was determined by an application...

In sub-Saharan Africa, including Uganda, there is declining soil fertility and limited on-farm use of inorganic fertilizers due to poverty and limited subsidies for inorganic fertilizer use. Thus, integration of soil fertility improving tree species (SFITs) in farming systems remains a plausible option to sustaining soil productivity. However, know...

The change from natural forest cover to tea and Eucalyptus is rampant in protected areas of western Uganda. The objectives were; to examine the trend in land-use /cover change and determine the effect of these changes on the physico-chemical properties of soils around Kibale National Park. The trend in land use/cover change was assessed by analyzin...

Maintenance of water infiltration into sloped agricultural lands is an important mechanism for both moisture supply to crops and erosion control. Changes in water infiltration of a typic Kandiudult (Rhodic Nitisols) with a 21% slope were measured in the upper-, middle- and lower-backslope segments of 9 m by 40 m run-off plots located at Makerere Un...