Journal of Environment and Health Science Journal of Environment and Health Science Journal of Environment and Health Science Journal of Environment and Health Science 2378-6841Ommega Online PublishersNew Jersey, USA201110.15436/2378-6841.18.2011Research ArticleFarmers’ Perception of the Impacts of Climate Variability and Change on Food Security in Rubanda District, South Western UgandaFarmers’ Perception of the Impacts of Climate Variability and Change on Food Security in Rubanda District, South Western UgandaBYAMUKAMAWILLBROADDepartment of Agricultural and Environmental Engineering University of Ibadan NigeriaEditor* E-mail: willbroad2016@gmail.com
The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.
20182112201842JEHS-18-RA-201101112018151220182018Creative Commons Attribution LicenseThis is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. emsp emsp Climate variability adversely impacts crop production and imposes a major constraint on farming planning mostly under rain fed conditions across developing countries Considering the recent advances in climate science many studies are trying to provide a reliable basis for climate and subsequently agricultural production forecasts Rainfall and temperature variability from season to season greatly affects soil water availability to crops and thus poses crop production risks to agriculture which is a major economic activity in Rubanda District Southwestern Uganda It was observed that farmers tend to rely on their accumulated experience about weather conditions in the schedule of their farm operations Therefore this study was designed to examine farmers rsquo perception of the impacts of climate variability and change on food security in Rubanda District of Southwestern Uganda emsp emsp Primary data were obtained through questionnaire administration and field observations among the farmers in Rubanda district Secondary data was obtained from Kabale Meteorological center rainfall and temperature between 1976 and 2016 Simple random sampling technique was employed in the selection of sample size and a total of 200 farmers were randomly selected for the study The selection of the sample size was based on the procedure of Yamane 1967 Microsoft Excel office 2013 was used to show trends of climate variability and change and SPSS version 20 for descriptive analysis emsp emsp The results of the analyses showed that temperature increased significantly whereas a decreasing trend of rainfall was observed Farmers perceived the variability of the climate to have led to the decline of agricultural production hence impacting on food security The chi-square analysis showed that Climate variability and change has significant relationship with food availability p lt 0 05 food access p lt 0 05 food consumption p lt 0 05 and food stability p lt 0 05 The test also showed that there is variation in the perception of climate variability and change among the farmers in Rubanda District p lt 0 05 emsp emsp Climate variability and change factors have the potential for climatic stress on food security according to the observed agricultural production decline and farmers are seasonally faced with problems of food deficits due to unpredicted extreme weather events emsp emsp The study established that policies improved access to climate forecasting and dissemination and accessible extension service should be directed toward interventions to improve agriculture productivity by addressing issues concerning aspects of climate variability and change that constantly affect the dimensions of food security 10