Master of Science in Agriculture and Rural Development
Permanent URI for this collectionhttps://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11951/819
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Item Adoption of Climate Smart Agriculture Technologies by Smallholder Maize Farmers in Manafwa District, Eastern Uganda(Uganda Christian University, 2025-04-04) Robert Hamfrey MafumoGlobally, climate change is becoming a major threat to food security systems and sustainable development. This study aimed to assess the effects of Climate-Smart Agriculture (CSA) practices adopted by smallholder farmers on maize yields in Butiru sub-county, Manafwa district. It focused on identifying the existing CSA practices, determined factors influencing their adoption, and evaluated their effects on maize yield. The study hypothesized that CSA practices have no significant effect on maize yield. A cross-sectional design was employed; simple random sampling to select 298 maize farmers and semi-structured questionnaires were used to collect primary data. Data analysis was conducted using descriptive statistics and a Binary probity with STATA software. The results revealed that, the common CSA practices included: intercropping maize with legumes, use of improved maize varieties, and application of organic fertilizers implementation of crop barriers, terracing and agroforestry. Among these, intercropping maize crop with legumes ranked 1st and agroforestry ranked the least among the CSA practices used. Majority of farmers (55.37%) were male, mean age of respondents was 43.61 years. On average, farmers’ households comprised six (6) members, the mean maize average was 2.297 acres and an average number of extension visits was 0.439 per month. The average size of farmer groups was 10 members. The Binary probit revealed that factors such as gender, age, participation in CSA training sessions, extension visits, household labor availability, education level, and access to credit significantly (p>0.1) influenced the adoption of CSA practices among smallholder farmers. Furthermore, CSA practices like intercropping (P>0.03), planted better quality maize seeds (P> 0.04), and use of decomposed manure (p = 0.01) had a significant effect on maize yield. In conclusion, the adoption of the improved maize planning technologies is influenced by factors such as sex, age, education, and extension visits. Training has helped in promoting the use of different improved technologies, with significant effects on maize yield seen in practices like intercropping, use of biological mature and the use of better-quality seeds. To enhance the adoption of improved technologies and improve crop productivity, it is recommended to develop farmer education programs that increase adoption, promote gender empowerment and youth involvement and improve access to financial credit for small-scale farmers.