Browsing by Author "Opio, Alfonse"

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    Contribution of Pluralistic Agriculture Extension Service Provision to Smallholder Farmer Resilience
    (Journal of Sustainable Development, 2023) Odongo, Hannington Jawoko; Opio, Alfonse; Mwesigye, Adrian; Bariyo, Rogers
    The paper examined the relationship between pluralistic agriculture extension systems and the socioeconomic resilience of smallholder farmers in northern Uganda. A categorical regression analysis was conducted on quantitative data that were randomly collected from 308 respondents. The pluralistic agriculture extension service accounted for a 40% and 32% change in social and economic resilience respectively. The main factors that had positive and significant effects on socioeconomic resilience were the management style of extension agents and participatory monitoring and evaluation of smallholder farmer extension activities that caused less than half a unit fold of increment in socioeconomic resilience. Although small, they form the ground for farmers’ capacity to buffer, adapt to changes, and cope with stresses and disturbances. The F-values in the regression models are important in the prioritization of the significant factors during the design and implementation of extension models. The paper contributes to the ongoing discussion on the role the pluralistic agriculture extension system plays in enhancing farmer resilience and the use of quantitative methodological procedures in identifying the strength of the relationship between the factors.
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    Spatial patterns of urbanisation in Sub-Saharan Africa: A case study of Uganda
    (Development Southern Africa, 2021) Tumwesigye, Samuel; Vanmaercke, Matthias; Hemerijckx, Lisa-Marie; Opio, Alfonse; Poesen, Jean; Twongyirwe, Ronald; Rompaey, Anton Van
    Sub-Saharan Africa is rapidly urbanising. This urbanisation may contribute to socio-economic development as more people participate in the urban economy. Nevertheless, rapid urbanisation is not always sustainable. Primary cities often grow fast, leaving secondary towns lagging behind with weaker economies. Viable strategies for sustainable urbanisation may therefore also need to focus on developing secondary towns. Nevertheless, very few studies, hitherto, have assessed the (relative) importance of secondary towns in urbanisation process in Sub-Saharan Africa. We aim to address this gap by studying the patterns and explanatory factors of urban population growth in Uganda. Based on a longitudinal analysis of population ranksize distribution, we show that the population distribution gap between secondary towns and the primary city is widening. Nevertheless, statistical analyses further indicate that secondary towns with above 50 000 inhabitants have the highest population growth rates. This indicates that future investments should aim at upgrading socio-economic infrastructures in secondary towns.
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    Who and Why? Understanding Rural Out-Migration in Uganda
    (Geographies, 2021) Tumwesigye, Samuel; Hemerijckx, Lisa-Marie; Opio, Alfonse; Poesen, Jean; Vanmaercke, Matthias; Twongyirwe, Ronald; Rompaey, Anton Van
    Rural–urban migration in developing countries is considered to be a key process for sustainable development in the coming decades. On the one hand, rural–urban migration can contribute to the socioeconomic development of a country. On the other hand, it also leads to labor transfer, brain-drain in rural areas, and overcrowded cities where planning is lagging behind. In order to get a better insight into the mechanisms of rural–urban migration in developing countries, this paper analyzes motivations for rural–urban migration from the perspective of rural households in Uganda. A total of 1015 rural households located in southwestern Uganda were surveyed in 2019. A total of 48 percent of these households reported having at least one out-migrant. By means of logistic regression modeling, the likelihood for rural out-migration was assessed using household- and community-level socioeconomic characteristics as predictors. The results show that most out-migrants are from relatively wealthy households with a higher-than-average education level. Typically, these households are located in villages that are well connected with urban centers. Poor households in remote locations send significantly fewer migrants because of their limited access to migration information and poor transport networks. From these findings, the following policy recommendations are made: Firstly, efforts should be made to extend basic social services, including quality education, towards rural areas. Secondly, in order to reduce socially disruptive long-distance migration and the eventual overcrowding and sprawls of major cities, government investments should be oriented towards the upgrading of secondary towns, which can offer rural out-migrants rewarding employment and business opportunities.