Browsing by Author "Isubikalu, Prossy"

Now showing 1 - 7 of 7
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    Community Perception on Weather Variability in the Lake Victoria Basin, Rwanda and Uganda
    (International Journal of Humanities, Art and Social Studies, 2011) Bigirimana, Celestin; Omujal, Francis; Isubikalu, Prossy; Bizuru, Elias; Obaa, Bernard; Malinga, Michael; Agea, Jacob G.; Okullo, John B. L.
    The study was conducted in districts of Bugesera, Kirehe and Nyamagabe in Rwanda and Buikwe, Busia, Kamuli, Masaka and Namutumba in Uganda to explore community perceptions on weather variability. Household interviews and focus group discussions were conducted to document awareness of traditional ways of weather prediction, local indicators of weather prediction, source of knowledge, effects of weather variability as well as communities’ coping strategies. Traditionally, behavior of birds, insects, moon, clouds, and direction of wind has always been the main indicators of rainfall, drought and flood pattern prediction. The main reported sources of information were parents, elders, friends and experience. Poor crop harvest, pests and diseases, crop wilting and extinction, etc, were effects of weather variability. Coping strategies were tree conservation, irrigation, use of manure and fertilizers, use of insecticide/pesticides and anti-erosion activities, etc. Community knowledge is useful and should be integrated with other conventional methods to predict weather variability.
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    Farmers’ Use of Indigenous Fruit Trees to Cope With Climate Variability in the Lake Victoria Basin Districts of Uganda
    (Current Research in Agricultural Sciences, 2022) Okullo, John B. L.; Omujal, Francis; Enuru, Thomas; Bigirimana, Celestin; Isubikalu, Prossy; Agea, Jacob G.; Bizuru, Elias; Obua, Joseph
    The escalating extreme weather conditions has forced rural farmers in Africa to rely disproportionately on Indigenous Fruit Trees (IFTs) to sustain their household food/nutrition security, employment and income generation. This paper analysed farmers’ use of IFTs to cope with climate variability in selected Lake Victoria Basin Districts of Uganda. Data were collected from farmers using questionnaires, key informant interviews and focus group discussions. From 13 most preferred IFTs, focus was on the most popular and highly ranked five: Garcinia buchananii, Vangueria apiculata, Canarium schweinfurthii, Tamarindus indica and Saba comorensis. Preferences for these IFTs were influenced by their uses for food, medicine, timber, compound shade provision and marketability. Age, sex, education, occupation, family size, land size, non-farming activities, period of stay on the same piece of land, and income level significantly (P≤0.05) influenced choice of the preferred IFTs. Majority of the respondents had IFTs planted on-farms, along the roads to provide various goods/services and in marginal lands unsuitable for farming to diversify agriculture as a strategy to cope with climate variability. Given that the uses of IFTs in the five LVB districts are associated with farmers’ efforts to cope with climate variability, the goal of any climate-adaptive farmer-based project should support sustainable use of IFTs, in the short-term and foster innovations such as on-farm planting of IFTs and other fast-growing tree species to meet household demands
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    Impediments, opportunities and strategies to enhance trade of wild and semi-wild food plants in Bunyoro- Kitara Kingdom, Uganda
    (International Journal of Medicinal and Aromatic Plants, 2011) Agea, Jacob G.; Obaa, Bernard B.; Kimondo, James M.; Okia, Clement A.; Isubikalu, Prossy; Woiso, Dino A.; Obua, Joseph; Teklehaimanot, Zewge
    This study examined the impediments, opportunities and strategies to enhance trade of wild and semiwild food plants (WSWFPs) in Bunyoro-Kitara Kingdom, Uganda. Semi-structured questionnaire was administered face-to-face to sixty six (66) traders of WSWFPs in the formal markets: five (5) mobile hawkers and eleven (11) home-based/roadside traders. As a result of their small number, all traders that were found selling WSWFPs were interviewed. Data were analysed using simple descriptive statistics in excel spreadsheet and MINITAB statistical package. A number of challenges including high perishability, market dues, inaccurate consumers’ perceptions, seasonal shortfalls and unreliable supply, unorganized markets, little or no value addition, limited market information, and the inexistence of market promotional activities affected the trade in WSWFPs. However, the growing market demands, increasing focus of most service providers in creating awareness on WSWFPs, ever-changing perception on nutritional values of WSWFPs by the public, current government emphasis on value addition of traded agricultural products, little or no capital requirement for starting up trade in WSWFPs, and absence of restrictive regulations on sale of WSWFPs were regarded as good opportunities that could be exploited to enhance trade in WSWFPs. Key strategies for improved marketing WSWFPs included among other things, training gatherers and traders on value adding activities prior to sale, deliberate investment in promotional and awareness campaigns to expose the hidden benefits of WSWFPs, scrapping market dues levied on traders selling WSWFPs, helping gatherers and sellers to organise themselves to form viable supply and market groups, linking gatherers and sellers to good markets, as well as providing them with available market information. There is thus, a need for concerted efforts to implement some of these feasible marketing strategies to improve on the markets of WSWFPs in the kingdom.
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    Influence of Socio‑Technological Factors on Smallholder Farmers’ Choices of Agroforestry Technologies in the Eastern Highlands of Uganda
    (Small-scale Forestry, 2021) Kalanzi, Fred; Birungi Kyazze, Florence; Isubikalu, Prossy; Kiyingi, Isaac; Justus Baguma Orikiriza, Lawrence; Okia, Clement; Guuroh, Reginald Tang
    remedy to counter declining farm productivity. Over the last decades, researchers and other actors have promoted several agroforestry technologies to improve farm productivity. Sometimes, the promotion message provided through extension assumes a homogenous smallholder farmers’ context. However, smallholder farmers’ social and farm contexts are heterogeneous. Smallholder farmers make different choices of which technologies fit their contexts. A range of factor categories influence and (re)shape choice decisions of smallholder farmers. In this paper, the authors seek to articulate the importance of socio-technological factors shaping smallholder farmers’ choices of specific agroforestry technologies on their farms. Knowledge of these factors provides insights that inform the design of refined farmer contextbased extension messages, consequently enhancing the scaling-up of agroforestry technologies. The Decomposed Theory of Planned Behaviour was used as the main framework to understand smallholder farmers’ choice decisions among agroforestry technologies. We used a mixed methods approach. Quantitative data were collected from 277 randomly selected farming households in the eastern highlands of Uganda. Qualitative data that complemented the quantitative were collected using focus group discussions. An alternative-specific conditional logit model was used to model smallholder farmers’ agroforestry choices. Results indicated that the number of tree species desired by the farmer and the perceived value of the technology were the most critical factors that commonly influence smallholder farmers’ choice of agroforestry technologies. The influence of other factors such as gender, the number of training sessions attended, total land owned, peer influence and perceived behavioural control were technology-specific, suggesting the need to tailor agroforestry interventions to specific farmer categories.
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    Nutritional Potential of Myrianthus holstii Fruit of Rwanda
    (Rwanda Journal of Agricultural Sciences, 2020) Omujal, Francis; Okullo, John B. L.; Bigirimana, Celestin; Isubikalu, Prossy; Agea, Jacob G.; Bizuru, Eias
    Myrianthus holstii fruit has been a neglected edible fruit with limited nutritional information. This study evaluated the physical and chemical characteristics of M. holstii fruit of Rwanda. The physical parameters including fruit weight, fruit size, pulp content, seed weight and seed size are reported. The fruit pulp that is acidic pH (3.38±0.04) contained; protein (8.03±0.95 g/100g), dietary fibre (25.64±0.06 g/100g), vitamin C (19.80±2.13 mg/100g), beta carotene (0.99 mg/100g), iron (16.262±0.576 mg/100g), zinc (2.327±0.034 mg/100g) and copper (0.573±0.011 mg/100g). Assessment of these nutrient contribution to the Recommended Dietary Allowance (RDA) showed 100g of pulp can meet 42%, 103%, 79%, 233%, 163%, 49% and 143% for children (4-8-year-old); and 18%, 103%, 22%, 133%, 90%, 29%, and 63% for adults (19-50years) respectively. The seeds had an oil yield of 37.67±1.53% with omega 6 fatty acid (78.92) being the most dominant. The total unsaturation in the oil was 90.91% with 78.92% poly unsaturated fatty acids. Based on the nutritional information, M. holstii can be a good source of beta carotene (vitamin A), iron, zinc and omega 6 fats that are essential in nutrition and health. Therefore, the fruit should be promoted for consumption as a snack and also processed into food products like fruit juice, wine, jelly, jam and vegetable oil to enhance the nutrition, health and income of households.
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    Perceived Availability and Management of Garcinia buchananii Fruit Tree Species in the Lake Victoria Basin Districts of Rwanda and Uganda
    (Journal of Agricultural Research, 2016) Bigirimana, Celestin; Omujal, Francis; Isubikalu, Prossy; Bizuru, Elias; Obaa, Bernard B.; Malinga, Michael; Agea, Jacob G.; Okullo, John B. L.
    This study explored community knowledge on availability and management of Garcinia buchananii in the Lake Victoria Basin (LVB) districts of Rwanda and Uganda. Specifically, it was conducted in Bugesera and Kirehe districts (Rwanda), and Buikwe and Masaka districts (Uganda). Household surveys, key informant interviews, focus group discussions (FGDs) and case studies were conducted to ascertain the availability status, ecological niche(s), propagation techniques as well as management practices of Garcinia buchananii. Garcinia buchananii was reported to be mostly abundant (0.329±0.471) in the garden and wild. The highly reported methods of propagating were by use of seeds (87.8% in Uganda and 85.4% in Rwanda). In Uganda, knowledge on propagation techniques was influenced by occupation (R2 = 0.084; P=0.05) while in Rwanda, none of the socio-demographic characteristics influenced knowledge on propagation of the species. The most common reported practices for managing Garcinia buchananii included weeding, mulching, watering and pruning. Since rural farming communities have always been exploiting indigenous fruit trees for their livelihoods, increased awareness and use of proper extension services plus provision of planting materials could lead to wise use and management of Garcinia buchananii in the LVB districts of Rwanda and Uganda.
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    The Role of Social Networks on Shrimp Fishers’ Access to Information and Gear in Rivers State
    (Journal of Agricultural Science and Technology, 2019) Komi, Gentle Wilson; Turyahabwe, Nelson; Isubikalu, Prossy; Amiye, Francis; Ibitoru, Aduabobo Hart
    Access to information and appropriate fishing gear is fundamental to the protection and conservation of the fisheries resources to guarantee sustainable livelihood of the fishers. Social networks in eight fishing settlements of Rivers State were purposively selected to assess the role of networks on access and use of information and gear among the shrimp fishers. The cross-sectional study used mixed methods to elicit data. Data obtained were subjected to content analysis and MAXQDA 2018 software to generate project maps showing information and fishing gear accessed and used. Results show that 24.8% (31) of respondents joined social network due to information sharing behavior of network members. Information was shared through one-on-one interactions, group meetings, fish buyers and phone calls. Out of the 96.8% (121) of respondents belonging to shrimp fishers’ network, 23.2% attended meetings for at least four times a month while 22.4% attended meetings for more than four times a month. Information shared bordered on price of shrimps, weather and tide, fishing grounds and traps, water level, timing of fishing and processing techniques. Respondents revealed that information shared in their networks was correct, adequate and timely. Fishing gear accessed and used proficiently was dragnet, cast net and beach seine. In all, the evidence from the interview responses suggests that networks play a key role in shrimp fishers’ access and use of information and fishing gear. Fishers are therefore, encouraged to be in one network or the other.