Journal of Biodiversity and Environmental Sciences
Landsat (TM) of 1986 and 1990 and Landsat (ETM+) of 2000 and 2004 for Nakasongola district were o... more Landsat (TM) of 1986 and 1990 and Landsat (ETM+) of 2000 and 2004 for Nakasongola district were obtained and analyzed using the ILWIS 3.6 software using unsupervised classification. An overlay analysis of satellite images was conducted in order to understand the patterns of land use and cover change. Cultivation, coniferous plantations, bush and woody encroachment were the most pervasive land use and cover types encroaching on grasslands. The area covered by grassland decreased by 13.1% between 1986 and 2004. Between 1986 and 1990, much of the grasslands were converted to bushland (38,608 ha), woodland (19,659 ha) and cropland (9,159 ha) while between 1990 and 2000 were converted to woodland (21,838 ha), cropland (5,912 ha) and bushland (4,506 ha) and between 2000 and 2004, 33,354, ha were converted to woodland, 12,029 ha to bushland and 6,114 ha to cropland. Bush and woody encroachment engulfed 65%, 50% and 54% of grasslands in the periods of 1986 – 1990, 1990 – 2000 and 2000 – 200...
The current pace of rangeland degradation imparted by appalling land use and management systems i... more The current pace of rangeland degradation imparted by appalling land use and management systems is greatly limiting the potential of the soil resource to support pasture production in semi-arid rangelands of Uganda. Our objectives were to determine the effects of land cover change and production systems on pasture biomass yield and to identify the critical soil factors affecting pasture production in Nakasongola. The area was stratified into three production systems and three land cover types from which six pasture and soil samples were collected following a Modified-Whittaker sampling method. Pasture biomass was significantly high (p < 0.0001) under herbaceous cover (2019 kg/ha) compared to woody (1302 kg/ha) and bare which had no pasture biomass. The settled production system had a significantly (p = 0.013) high pasture biomass (1266 kg/ha) compared to non settled (1102 kg/ha) and semi settled systems (953 kg/ha). Biomass yield was more associated with high levels of organic ma...
... This study was therefore initiated to establish socioeconomic factors affecting LWP, and esti... more ... This study was therefore initiated to establish socioeconomic factors affecting LWP, and estimate LWP ... Distances covered to access water by livestock especially in the dry season in the pastoral ... Molden (ed.), Water for food, water for life: A comprehensive assessment of water ...
Sustainable agricultural intensification: a handbook for practitioners in East and Southern Africa
This chapter describes how cropping systems can be used to supplement feeds to increase dairy and... more This chapter describes how cropping systems can be used to supplement feeds to increase dairy and poultry yields. It completes the concept of on-farm integration of crop, livestock and natural resources technologies necessary for sustainable intensification on smallholder farms. The different processes that utilize different feed sources to produce better-quality feed rations for dairy cows and poultry are also discussed.
Elucidation of factors influencing utilization of introduced forages is critical in formulation o... more Elucidation of factors influencing utilization of introduced forages is critical in formulation of interventions to foster their integration into smallholder dairy production systems. The study sought to identify introduced forages cultivated by farmers and the socio-economic factors influencing their preference and adoption in Masaka, Mityana and Wakiso Districts of Uganda. Pennisetum purpureum was the most cultivated fodder with 70.5 % of respondents cultivating it. Farmers differed (X2=919.6, P < 0.0001) in their ranking of factors influencing their preference for introduced forages. Farmers ’ raking of “high yielding ” was higher (p<0.001) than for other factors in all the three districts. Adoption was found to be a function of age, land ownership and level of education. The probability of a farmer adopting introduced forages differed among age groups (X2=11.3, df = 4, p=0.024), systems of land ownership (X2=12.1, df = 4, p=0.017) and levels of education (X2=10.1, df=3, P=...
This poster was prepared for the Tenth Anniversary of the Nile Basin Initiative, 6-8 November 200... more This poster was prepared for the Tenth Anniversary of the Nile Basin Initiative, 6-8 November 2009, Dar es Salaam, Tanzania.
Résumé Research Application Summary Spatial variability in subterranean termite assemblage on gra... more Résumé Research Application Summary Spatial variability in subterranean termite assemblage on grazing lands in semi-arid Nakasongola, Uganda Mugerwa, S.12, Nyangito, M.M.1, Bakuneta, C.3, Mpairwe, D.3, Zziwa, E.1 & Nderitu, J.1 1University of Nairobi, P.O. Box 30197, Nairobi, Kenya 2National Livestock Resources Research Institute, P. O. Box 96, Tororo, Uganda 3Faculty of Agriculture, Makerere Univeristy, P.O. Box 7062, Kampala, Uganda Corresponding author: dmpairwe@agric.mak.ac.ug Surges in termite activity and the associated destructive behavior have resulted into enormous deterioration of grazing lands in semi-arid Nakasongola in the drylands of central Uganda. Termites frequently attack and severely damage grasses and legumes in pasture swards. Understanding the nature and the variability in termite assemblage structure across varying ecosystem conditions is pertinent in elucidating the ecological drivers of termite behavior, as well as in developing ecologically sustainable term...
International Journal of Agriculture and Forestry, 2015
Rangelands provide the cheapest source of feed for ruminant livestock and account for more than 9... more Rangelands provide the cheapest source of feed for ruminant livestock and account for more than 90% of beef production in Uganda. Rangelands are however being degraded due to changes in resource ownership, management practices, and market forces that exert pressure on rangeland resources. Many farmers are not aware about the existence of alternative feeding practices that can be used to supplement grazing, increase growth rate and returns to investment. This study was therefore conducted to understand the current beef production practices and assess climate variability and change impacts in the beef cattle production systems in the rangelands of Lake Victoria basin. The study was conducted in Rakai, Isingiro and Lyantonde interviewing 33, 37 and 30 cattle producing households. 48.5, 73 and 69.9% of the households in Rakai, Isingiro and Lyantonde District had stayed in the area for more than 20 years with 97.6% of household heads having attained formal education. Average land owned p...
Termite infestation is symptomatic of severe land degradation in many semi-arid regions of the Ni... more Termite infestation is symptomatic of severe land degradation in many semi-arid regions of the Nile Basin. One characteristic of land degradation is low organic matter (OM) reserves in vegetative biomass and soil. One consequence is excessive rainwater depletion through non-productive evaporation and runoff leading to low agricultural water productivity and diminished livelihoods. CPWF research demonstrated that rapid restoration of pasture production is possible by providing manure through night corralling of cattle prior to re-seeding termite affected rangeland in Uganda. In degraded Ethiopian and Ugandan croplands, preliminary results also suggest that application of maize or sorghum stover to growing maize crops reduces termite damage and associate yield losses. Termites appear to prefer feeding on litter, manure and stover rather than on living plant material. We hypothesize that sustainable crop and livestock production requires a minimum threshold of available dry-season ‘lit...
In a farmer participatory process, farmers in Masaka district identified intensive dairy farming ... more In a farmer participatory process, farmers in Masaka district identified intensive dairy farming using improved cattle breeds as potentially viable enterprise to improve household income and nutrition. The realization of potential economic benefits is however impeded by inadequate feeds during the dry season leading to low animal productivity. Findings from on-station research, suggest the possibility of incorporating forage legumes in farming systems that could solve feed shortages during the dry season. Participatory on-farm trials were therefore conducted on 24 dairy farms to demonstrate the effects of leguminous fodder on feed availability and response of dairy cows fed forages from cereal or elephant grass intercropped with forage legumes and supplemented with lablab hay and/or calliandra leaf hay. The study lasted 18 months. This paper presents benefits and constraints identified by farmers as a result of integrating forage legumes in farming systems and lessons learnt form wo...
To understand the usefulness of biomarkers in selection for hydrothermal stress tolerance traits ... more To understand the usefulness of biomarkers in selection for hydrothermal stress tolerance traits in cassava varieties.Completely randomized design experiments were set up in the screen house where four varieties including the stay green genotype NASE 3, the early recovering variety NASE 16 and the susceptible variety NASE 1 were studied in comparison to the known stay green variety MH96/0686 as the stress tolerant reference.The study was carried out at the Makerere University Agricultural Research Institute Kabanyolo (MUARIK) for a period of four months between August and December 2013. Leaf samples were collected from the four cassava varieties at four months after planting for analysis of leaf growth rate characteristics, total leaf protein, changes in chlorophyll and carotenoid contents, and changes in peroxidase and catalase (antioxidant enzymes) activities. Reduction (up to 40%) in the growth rate for morphological parameters was observed for early recovering variety NASE 16 co...
Elucidating the influence of ecological factors on composition and foraging intensity of subterra... more Elucidating the influence of ecological factors on composition and foraging intensity of subterranean termites is critical in development of sustainable termite management strategies. Our aim was therefore to analyze the effect of selected biotic and abiotic factors on composition and foraging intensity of termites. We used principal component and canonical correspondence analysis to select appropriate factors and to model relationships respectively. Macrotermes species occurred in sites where the quantity of litter was generally above the mean. However, Macrotermes herus (Rambur) and Macrotermes spp.4 occurred in sites where the litter quantity was below the mean. Trinervitermes oeconomous (Tragardh) and Odontoremes spp.1 were noted to occur in the direction of increasing quantity of biomass. Generally, most species occurred in sites where soil pH was above or slightly below the mean (4.8). Majority of the species were also noted to occur in sites where bulk density was below or sl...
Journal of Biodiversity and Environmental Sciences
Landsat (TM) of 1986 and 1990 and Landsat (ETM+) of 2000 and 2004 for Nakasongola district were o... more Landsat (TM) of 1986 and 1990 and Landsat (ETM+) of 2000 and 2004 for Nakasongola district were obtained and analyzed using the ILWIS 3.6 software using unsupervised classification. An overlay analysis of satellite images was conducted in order to understand the patterns of land use and cover change. Cultivation, coniferous plantations, bush and woody encroachment were the most pervasive land use and cover types encroaching on grasslands. The area covered by grassland decreased by 13.1% between 1986 and 2004. Between 1986 and 1990, much of the grasslands were converted to bushland (38,608 ha), woodland (19,659 ha) and cropland (9,159 ha) while between 1990 and 2000 were converted to woodland (21,838 ha), cropland (5,912 ha) and bushland (4,506 ha) and between 2000 and 2004, 33,354, ha were converted to woodland, 12,029 ha to bushland and 6,114 ha to cropland. Bush and woody encroachment engulfed 65%, 50% and 54% of grasslands in the periods of 1986 – 1990, 1990 – 2000 and 2000 – 200...
The current pace of rangeland degradation imparted by appalling land use and management systems i... more The current pace of rangeland degradation imparted by appalling land use and management systems is greatly limiting the potential of the soil resource to support pasture production in semi-arid rangelands of Uganda. Our objectives were to determine the effects of land cover change and production systems on pasture biomass yield and to identify the critical soil factors affecting pasture production in Nakasongola. The area was stratified into three production systems and three land cover types from which six pasture and soil samples were collected following a Modified-Whittaker sampling method. Pasture biomass was significantly high (p < 0.0001) under herbaceous cover (2019 kg/ha) compared to woody (1302 kg/ha) and bare which had no pasture biomass. The settled production system had a significantly (p = 0.013) high pasture biomass (1266 kg/ha) compared to non settled (1102 kg/ha) and semi settled systems (953 kg/ha). Biomass yield was more associated with high levels of organic ma...
... This study was therefore initiated to establish socioeconomic factors affecting LWP, and esti... more ... This study was therefore initiated to establish socioeconomic factors affecting LWP, and estimate LWP ... Distances covered to access water by livestock especially in the dry season in the pastoral ... Molden (ed.), Water for food, water for life: A comprehensive assessment of water ...
Sustainable agricultural intensification: a handbook for practitioners in East and Southern Africa
This chapter describes how cropping systems can be used to supplement feeds to increase dairy and... more This chapter describes how cropping systems can be used to supplement feeds to increase dairy and poultry yields. It completes the concept of on-farm integration of crop, livestock and natural resources technologies necessary for sustainable intensification on smallholder farms. The different processes that utilize different feed sources to produce better-quality feed rations for dairy cows and poultry are also discussed.
Elucidation of factors influencing utilization of introduced forages is critical in formulation o... more Elucidation of factors influencing utilization of introduced forages is critical in formulation of interventions to foster their integration into smallholder dairy production systems. The study sought to identify introduced forages cultivated by farmers and the socio-economic factors influencing their preference and adoption in Masaka, Mityana and Wakiso Districts of Uganda. Pennisetum purpureum was the most cultivated fodder with 70.5 % of respondents cultivating it. Farmers differed (X2=919.6, P < 0.0001) in their ranking of factors influencing their preference for introduced forages. Farmers ’ raking of “high yielding ” was higher (p<0.001) than for other factors in all the three districts. Adoption was found to be a function of age, land ownership and level of education. The probability of a farmer adopting introduced forages differed among age groups (X2=11.3, df = 4, p=0.024), systems of land ownership (X2=12.1, df = 4, p=0.017) and levels of education (X2=10.1, df=3, P=...
This poster was prepared for the Tenth Anniversary of the Nile Basin Initiative, 6-8 November 200... more This poster was prepared for the Tenth Anniversary of the Nile Basin Initiative, 6-8 November 2009, Dar es Salaam, Tanzania.
Résumé Research Application Summary Spatial variability in subterranean termite assemblage on gra... more Résumé Research Application Summary Spatial variability in subterranean termite assemblage on grazing lands in semi-arid Nakasongola, Uganda Mugerwa, S.12, Nyangito, M.M.1, Bakuneta, C.3, Mpairwe, D.3, Zziwa, E.1 & Nderitu, J.1 1University of Nairobi, P.O. Box 30197, Nairobi, Kenya 2National Livestock Resources Research Institute, P. O. Box 96, Tororo, Uganda 3Faculty of Agriculture, Makerere Univeristy, P.O. Box 7062, Kampala, Uganda Corresponding author: dmpairwe@agric.mak.ac.ug Surges in termite activity and the associated destructive behavior have resulted into enormous deterioration of grazing lands in semi-arid Nakasongola in the drylands of central Uganda. Termites frequently attack and severely damage grasses and legumes in pasture swards. Understanding the nature and the variability in termite assemblage structure across varying ecosystem conditions is pertinent in elucidating the ecological drivers of termite behavior, as well as in developing ecologically sustainable term...
International Journal of Agriculture and Forestry, 2015
Rangelands provide the cheapest source of feed for ruminant livestock and account for more than 9... more Rangelands provide the cheapest source of feed for ruminant livestock and account for more than 90% of beef production in Uganda. Rangelands are however being degraded due to changes in resource ownership, management practices, and market forces that exert pressure on rangeland resources. Many farmers are not aware about the existence of alternative feeding practices that can be used to supplement grazing, increase growth rate and returns to investment. This study was therefore conducted to understand the current beef production practices and assess climate variability and change impacts in the beef cattle production systems in the rangelands of Lake Victoria basin. The study was conducted in Rakai, Isingiro and Lyantonde interviewing 33, 37 and 30 cattle producing households. 48.5, 73 and 69.9% of the households in Rakai, Isingiro and Lyantonde District had stayed in the area for more than 20 years with 97.6% of household heads having attained formal education. Average land owned p...
Termite infestation is symptomatic of severe land degradation in many semi-arid regions of the Ni... more Termite infestation is symptomatic of severe land degradation in many semi-arid regions of the Nile Basin. One characteristic of land degradation is low organic matter (OM) reserves in vegetative biomass and soil. One consequence is excessive rainwater depletion through non-productive evaporation and runoff leading to low agricultural water productivity and diminished livelihoods. CPWF research demonstrated that rapid restoration of pasture production is possible by providing manure through night corralling of cattle prior to re-seeding termite affected rangeland in Uganda. In degraded Ethiopian and Ugandan croplands, preliminary results also suggest that application of maize or sorghum stover to growing maize crops reduces termite damage and associate yield losses. Termites appear to prefer feeding on litter, manure and stover rather than on living plant material. We hypothesize that sustainable crop and livestock production requires a minimum threshold of available dry-season ‘lit...
In a farmer participatory process, farmers in Masaka district identified intensive dairy farming ... more In a farmer participatory process, farmers in Masaka district identified intensive dairy farming using improved cattle breeds as potentially viable enterprise to improve household income and nutrition. The realization of potential economic benefits is however impeded by inadequate feeds during the dry season leading to low animal productivity. Findings from on-station research, suggest the possibility of incorporating forage legumes in farming systems that could solve feed shortages during the dry season. Participatory on-farm trials were therefore conducted on 24 dairy farms to demonstrate the effects of leguminous fodder on feed availability and response of dairy cows fed forages from cereal or elephant grass intercropped with forage legumes and supplemented with lablab hay and/or calliandra leaf hay. The study lasted 18 months. This paper presents benefits and constraints identified by farmers as a result of integrating forage legumes in farming systems and lessons learnt form wo...
To understand the usefulness of biomarkers in selection for hydrothermal stress tolerance traits ... more To understand the usefulness of biomarkers in selection for hydrothermal stress tolerance traits in cassava varieties.Completely randomized design experiments were set up in the screen house where four varieties including the stay green genotype NASE 3, the early recovering variety NASE 16 and the susceptible variety NASE 1 were studied in comparison to the known stay green variety MH96/0686 as the stress tolerant reference.The study was carried out at the Makerere University Agricultural Research Institute Kabanyolo (MUARIK) for a period of four months between August and December 2013. Leaf samples were collected from the four cassava varieties at four months after planting for analysis of leaf growth rate characteristics, total leaf protein, changes in chlorophyll and carotenoid contents, and changes in peroxidase and catalase (antioxidant enzymes) activities. Reduction (up to 40%) in the growth rate for morphological parameters was observed for early recovering variety NASE 16 co...
Elucidating the influence of ecological factors on composition and foraging intensity of subterra... more Elucidating the influence of ecological factors on composition and foraging intensity of subterranean termites is critical in development of sustainable termite management strategies. Our aim was therefore to analyze the effect of selected biotic and abiotic factors on composition and foraging intensity of termites. We used principal component and canonical correspondence analysis to select appropriate factors and to model relationships respectively. Macrotermes species occurred in sites where the quantity of litter was generally above the mean. However, Macrotermes herus (Rambur) and Macrotermes spp.4 occurred in sites where the litter quantity was below the mean. Trinervitermes oeconomous (Tragardh) and Odontoremes spp.1 were noted to occur in the direction of increasing quantity of biomass. Generally, most species occurred in sites where soil pH was above or slightly below the mean (4.8). Majority of the species were also noted to occur in sites where bulk density was below or sl...
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