Farming for resilience: Climate-smart and circular regenerative agriculture practices for sustainable livelihoods

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Climate change is here and it is a lived reality. Communities all over are experiencing changes in seasons, prolonged droughts, flooding, and emerging pests and diseases. What once seemed predictable is now uncertain. The rains delay, stop abruptly, or come too heavily. Crops fail or produce low yields and livestock suffer lack of pasture and water.

Farmers are adopting a variety of approaches to adapt to climate change and try to harvest enough to feed their families and communities. What practices are working? In this episode, we speak to two farmers from Bugiri and Namutumba districts in the Busoga region of Eastern Uganda. Elizabeth Nandutu is a farmer and chairperson of Bulesa Cooperative Society in Bulesa- Bugiri District. Second is Mr. Kayigwa Moses: a farmer from Nsongwe village, Namutumba district. Then we will hear from engineer Boniface Okanya, who is the overall leader for the Climate Smart Agricultural Transformational Program at the Ministry of Agriculture, Animal Industry and Fisheries.

Today we talk about how farmers are building resilience to climate change. My name is—–the host. Stay tuned.

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Welcome. I am beginning with Elizabeth. Can you please introduce yourself for the audience?

Thank you. My name is Elizabeth Nandutu, from Bulesa, Bugiri district. I am a farmer. I grow food crops like maize, beans, and cassava. This is food for home consumption, but I sell some for income

Okay. Welcome, Elizabeth. Farmers in this locality have experienced challenges as a result of climate change. What challenges have you faced?

In this area, farming depends entirely on rain. Long ago, we used to have two seasons of rain in a year and could grow food twice a year. The first season was from around February to May. In June, we could harvest crops. Then from August to around November was the second season. But as time went by, we started seeing changes. Rain is delayed and when it comes, it rains for a short time, like two months only, and sunshine sets in. The sun destroys crops before they mature. Again, rain might come, but it rains too much and sweeps away our crops before they mature.

What do you do as farmers so as to adapt to such uncertainties and ensure that you get enough food?

We have been struggling when calamities occur; experiencing hunger, and famine, and poverty. We try within whichever means to find some food. Some people offer labour on other people’s farms and get some money to buy maize flour for the family. Surprisingly, some seasons can have ample rainfall to enable us grow some food. You may at least harvest fast-maturing crops like beans, but maize, which takes a bit long to mature, could be affected.
When climate-smart agriculture methods were introduced here, some of us took it up and were even selected for training on climate-smart agriculture. This method of farming is giving us high yield now. Even on a small garden, climate smart agriculture practices are helping us to get yields.

We can see that climate-smart farming is not a miracle for erratic conditions; based on your experience, do climate-smart agriculture techniques guarantee you stable yields when the weather gets really harsh?

Climate-smart agriculture techniques do not guarantee us stable yields when extreme weather conditions occur. However, these techniques of climate-smart agriculture enable us to mitigate risk. We often apply a combination of approaches. While extreme droughts or floods will always impact production, these methods reduce the severity of crop failure and help the farm recover faster than conventional farming. Like planting drought-tolerant seed varieties ensures that crops survive for a while but it is not a guarantee. Prolonged droughts destroy the crops unless when one uses irrigation.

Thank you Elizabeth. As we continue with the discussion on how farmers are building their resilience to cope with climate change, let us shift to Namutumba district where we have Mr. Kayigwa. Can you briefly introduce yourself to our listeners?

Thank you. I am Kayigwa Moses from Nsongwe village in Namutumba district. I am also a farmer. I grow maize, beans, soybean, sorghum, and other crops.

This area also experiences extreme conditions. What has been your biggest challenge?

The biggest problem in my area is low crop yields. We have overused the land and yet we do not add fertilizers. Like in the last seasons, I bought hybrid maize seed, which I planted. Sunshine was too much and out of almost an acre, I harvested only four hundred and seventy kilograms (470 kg) of maize. I had intercropped this garden with beans, from which I got sixty-seven kilograms (67 kg) of beans.

But when I started using the climate-smart agriculture practices, I realized over one thousand kilograms (1,000 kg) of maize from the same garden.

What a good harvest! What specific climate changes have you observed over the years, and how have you successfully applied some of the climate-smart practices to ensure that you get good yields?

In Namutumba, we face changes of erratic weather, prolonged droughts, and land degradation as a result of overusing the land without replenishing it. To deal with the effects of climate change we rely on a combination of approaches for example: intercropping and crop rotation whereby we alternate crops and planting legumes like soybean and beans between rows of maize to restore soil nutrients and prevent soil exhaustion. This ensures productive soil and supports farming thereby ensuring crop growth and yields. These are some of the practices that I do.

Ah, two practices that fall within many approaches to agriculture, including agroecology, circular regenerative agriculture, and climate-smart agriculture. Tell us more about how you do your planting.

I ensure that we maintain minimum disturbance of the soil. I use permanent planting basins in which we plant seeds. And I follow crop rotation. The planting basins are used to plant seed so that we do not dig holes again every planting season. They retain moisture for the crops and when I plant maize this season, next season, I use those basins to plant soybean. The soybeans will add nitrogen to the soil, so that it is richer for the following planting season.

We use a hoe to dig those permanent planting basins, just a regular hoe. A basin has to be thirty-five centimeters (35 cm) wide and the depth reaches the hard core of the soil. After digging the hole, you get the top soil, which you first dug off, half-fill the basin and put composted manure if you have it, then plant your good seed.

For maize, you put three seeds; one in the middle, one the other side and the third one the other side. After which, you again cover with a little topsoil.

Another technique I use is covering the land with crop stalks and residues to maintain moisture in the garden. This also reduces the growth of grass in the garden and maintains minimum tillage of land. The little grass that grows, we just uproot it with hands without using a hoe to weed so to limit soil disturbance.

What are some of the challenges encountered while practicing this?

It is tedious to manually dig the basins for planting seed due to the measurements and rules to follow. We also need to make composted manure to apply in the gardens because, whether we practice all this, it still does not give yields if we do not add fertilizers to the land. Another important aspect is irrigation. Much as we dig basins to retain moisture, even if it takes time for the rains to rain, we need irrigation for higher crop yields and for other crops like vegetables that require water all the time.

Thank you, Mr. Kayigwa for sharing those insights. These practical solutions help build resilience in the face of a changing climate: permanent planting basins, crop rotation, use of crop residues. Many of these are practices also in circular regenerative agriculture – another approach to farming. But again, I can imagine the time spent preparing a garden in a smart way. It seems to be a lot!

The Ugandan government adopted a Climate-Smart Agriculture strategy to offer practical skills to farmers in the face of climate change. The overall leader of the Climate Smart Agricultural Transformational program in the Ministry of Agriculture, Animal Industry and Fisheries, is Engineer Boniface Okanya, who is here with us now. Please tell us about this program.

Let me first explain briefly what climate-smart agriculture is about. This is a holistic approach to managing cropland, livestock, forests, and fisheries. It aims to address the interlinked challenges of food security and climate change with the view to sustainably increase productivity, enhance resilience, and reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Climate -smart agriculture techniques include using stress-tolerant crop varieties, agroforestry, and improved water management, among other approaches that sustain land for future generations. The Uganda Climate Smart Agricultural Transformation is a Government of Uganda project that is being implemented by the Ministry of Agriculture, Animal Industry and Fisheries, with funding from World Bank. Other co-implementing agencies include the National Agricultural Research Organization (NARO), the National Animal Genetic Resources Center and Data Bank, and the Department of Meteorological Services under the Ministry of Water and Environment.

What will the Ugandan government’s climate smart agriculture program bring to the farming communities’ lives and sustainably secure their long-term resilience?

The program covers the value chains like crop, livestock of dairy and beef, fisheries and aquaculture, and implements interlinked components right from seed systems, production, and value addition to market access. It supports investments for upscaling and adoption of climate-smart technologies and practices, mitigation, agricultural productivity, and incomes in project areas. In addition, it will improve access to remunerative markets through increased access to climate-smart harvesting, postharvest handling, storage, value addition, market linkage services, equipment, and infrastructure through increased access to climate smart harvesting, postharvest handling, storage, value addition, market linkage services, equipment, and infrastructure. It will all also finance eligible expenditures under the Immediate Response Mechanism in case of natural or man-made crises or disasters such as severe droughts, floods, specific pests and disease outbreaks, and severe economic shocks in Uganda.

Is climate-smart agriculture a silver bullet that will sustain the future of the farmers and agriculture in this era?

Climate-smart agriculture is not a single farming technology or practice. It is a way of planning and implementing agriculture so that farming becomes more productive, more resilient, and more environmentally sustainable. For example, a farmer may adopt drought-tolerant seed varieties, water harvesting and irrigation, agroforestry, conservation agriculture, improved livestock feeding practices, or efficient use of fertilizers. If these practices increase production, improve resilience, and support environmental sustainability, they can be considered climate-smart.

They are many approaches that we hear aim at improving farm productivity. May be let me ask, how is climate-smart agriculture different from circular regenerative agriculture, Nature-based Solutions, and agroecology?

These concepts are closely related and often overlap, but they have different emphasis and objectives. Climate-smart agriculture focuses on achieving three outcomes simultaneously, and these are; higher productivity, resilience to climate change, and lower environmental impact. Climate-smart agriculture is practical and flexible in different locations and farming systems may apply different solutions depending on local conditions. For example, in Busoga they use cover crops, yet in the Bugisu or Mount Elgon region they do contour bands.

Both practices would be considered part of conservation agriculture too, which attempts to reverse the process of soil degradation through reduced tillage and other soil fertility practices.

Now, circular regenerative agriculture focuses on restoring soil health and re-building natural ecosystems while reducing waste. The idea is to keep nutrients, water, and biological resources circulating within the farm system rather than relying heavily on external inputs. Examples include: returning crop residues to fields instead of burning them, composting manure and organic waste, integrating livestock and crop production, and restoring degraded soils. Its primary focus is restoration and regeneration of the soil.

Meanwhile, Nature-Based Solutions use natural ecosystems and ecological processes to solve social and environmental problems rather than relying only on engineered solutions. It works with nature. It includes practices like: planting trees to reduce erosion, restoring wetlands to improve water availability, establishing vegetative barriers to reduce flooding, protecting watersheds for irrigation. Its primary focus is using nature to address climate and development challenges.

Agroecology applies ecological principles to agriculture and emphasizes farming systems that work in harmony with nature. Agroecology promotes biodiversity, local knowledge, reduced dependence on external inputs, healthy soils and ecosystems. Examples include: mixed cropping; intercropping, integrated pest management; biological pest control. Many of which are also practices under circular regenerative agriculture.

It is quite interesting to know all this. It seems that farmers may be using practices that fall into many of these categories: climate-smart agriculture, circular regenerative agriculture, Nature-based Solutions, etc. Is one better than the other?

They are all good approaches because they complement each other. You can think of them like this: Climate-smart agriculture helps farmers respond to the challenges of climate change while improving agricultural production and livelihoods. Regenerative agriculture focuses on restoring soil health and maintaining healthy ecosystems while reducing waste. Meanwhile, Nature-based Solutions use nature to address climate and development challenges. Then, agroecology primarily focuses on building sustainable and balanced food systems by practicing mixed cropping, intercropping, and integrated pest management. So in practice, one farm can apply all of these approaches at the same time. For example, planting trees on farms, or agroforestry, can be climate-smart agriculture, can be a Nature-based Solution, can support regenerative agriculture, and can also be an agroecological practice.

Mr. Okanya, is there one specific practice under climate-smart agriculture that you would recommend farmers adopt?

Agroforestry really is a good practice. Growing trees together with crops on the same piece of land. Instead of having only crops in the garden, the farmer deliberately plants useful trees that support farming. Examples include: planting fruit trees in crop gardens like avocado, growing shade trees around coffee, planting nitrogen-fixing trees that improve soil fertility like Albizia, planting trees along boundaries to reduce wind and soil erosion. A farmer who grows maize can also plant trees around the field. The trees provide shade, reduce soil erosion, and improve soil fertility while the maize continues growing.

How is this climate-smart?

Agroforestry produces more food and income. Trees improve soil fertility and can provide fruits, firewood, or timber. Trees conserve moisture and protect crops from excessive heat and wind. Trees absorb carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, reduce soil erosion, and improve biodiversity. Also, trees bring about improved grazing and feed management. A farmer can cut tree branches and feed animals during dry periods instead of waiting for natural pasture, which prevents overgrazing and land degradation. These practices help farmers produce more, adapt to the changing climate, and protect natural resources for future generations.

Thank for you, Mr. Okanya! Actually, climate change is here. Farmers like those in the districts of Bugiri and Namutumba experience unpredictable rains, flash floods, and long dry spells which destroy crops and affect their livelihoods. But amidst this crisis, farmers are adopting climate-smart agriculture, to build their long-term resilience.

In today’s program, two districts have represented the rest of the districts where such activities are being implemented. We have heard a few strategies and practices for adapting to climate change, including crop rotation, using planting basins, and agroforestry. These practices protect and improve soil fertility, helping farmers to grow more despite climate change. And more of similar stories will come your way.

Until next time, I am ______. Goodbye!