| dc.description.abstract | Maize is one of the major food crops grown by most of the smallholder households in Uganda, and it serves as their main source of food and income. However, over the years maize productivity in eastern Uganda has been gradually declining. This decline has been attributed to a number of factors particularly climate variability manifested by reduced amount and frequency of rainfall and increased temperatures. Through their innovativeness, maize farmers have either adjusted to or applied climate smart agronomic practices to counteract the adverse effects of climate variability with the hope of sustaining maize grain yields. However, the effects of the climate smart agronomic practices as implemented by farmers on maize productivity had not yet been established. Therefore, this study was conducted in eastern Uganda to identify climate smart agronomic practices that have been adopted by maize farmers as a coping strategy towards the effects of climate variability on maize production, and how these practices have influenced maize productivity. A cross-sectional survey study to identify climate smart agronomic practices was carried out on a sample of 345 participant farmers from Mayuge, Namutumba and Sironko districts. This was followed by an experiment to determine the effect of selected climate smart agronomic practices on maize growth and productivity. The experiment was laid out in a randomized complete block design in two locations (Mayuge and Namutumba districts), and was replicated three times on each site during 2019A and 2019B seasons. The treatments comprised plots planted with Longe 10H maize intercropped with K132 common bean variety (T1), basins with three maize plants (T2), basins with two maize plants (T3), plots with minimum tillage (T4), plots mulched with dry grass (T5), and control plots which were well ploughed, planted with maize only and not mulched. The survey study revealed that the main climate smart agronomic practices adopted by farmers were planting of maize in basins (18.6%), intercropping (4.1%), mulching (40.9%), planting on terraces (5.9%), use of contour bunds (22.7%) and minimum tillage (1.8%). All the climate smart agronomic practices that were selected had significant (P<0.05) effects on maize plant heights, number of leaves per plant, plant vigour and maize grain yields when compared with the conventional practices (control). The results field study showed that treatments where two maize plants were planted in a basin, and where minimum tillage and mulching were applied had the best plant vigour when compared with the control. Maize planted in basins and that which was mulched had significantly (P<0.05) higher mean number of cobs (2.6) than where minimum tillage (2.1) was applied, as well as the control (1.5). Planting maize in basins, intercropping, and applying minimum tillage and mulching resulted in significantly (P<0.05) higher grain yields compared with the control. The agronomic practices adopted to cope with climate variability included planting maize in basins, intercropping with legumes, mulching, minimum tillage and planting maize on terraces significantly increased maize growth and productivity. I therefore recommend farmers to plant maize in basins, intercrop maize with legumes, mulch that sensitizing the rest of the smallholder farmers to adopt the CSAPs should be carried out, since these CSAPs have been shown to have the capacity to alleviate some of the effects of climate variability on maize productivity. Further research is needed to determine moisture retention and soil nutrient status in basins, minimum tillage and conventional practices to ascertain the causes of variation in productivity of maize. | en_US |
