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dc.contributor.authorSenyonjo, David
dc.date.accessioned2016-05-23T06:58:08Z
dc.date.available2016-05-23T06:58:08Z
dc.date.issued2009
dc.identifier.urihttp://hdl.handle.net/10570/4824
dc.descriptionA thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the award of the Masters of Science Degree in Environment and Natural Resources of Makerere Universityen_US
dc.description.abstractA case study was carried out in Mityana District to elicit and document farmers’ indigenous knowledge (IK) of land evaluation. It examined factors considered by farmers to access land suitability, explored inputs farmers consider necessary to bring about the desired level of production for practiced LUTs, and identified major LUTs in the study area that are considered by farmers basing on their IK to be physically, economically and socially possible. It is also compared and contrasted land suitability in terms of crop yield among farmers who rely on IK with minimum inevitable use of conventional knowledge with land suitability under optimum condition. An interview schedule was the main tool for data collection while descriptive statistics were the main analytical technique. Information from 180 randomly selected farmers was collected from three sub-counties and analyzed. Results revealed that farmers have a relatively good knowledge their land in terms of soil quality, potential and limitations for crop production. Farmers consider both biophysical and socio-economic factors for assessing suitability of their land for certain crops. They consider rainfall intensity, soil drainage, soil fertility, mean daily temperature, price/market, farm size, topography and land tenure for determining suitability of their land for certain crops. The most important biophysical factor is rainfall while the most important socio-economic factor is market/price. The most important LUTs that are considered by farmers to be suitable for their fields included: Coffee, banana, maize, and beans. These collate with LUTs allocated to the area under the governments’ plan for zonal agricultural production, indicating that results from IK-based land evaluation is in agreement with results from conventional land evaluation for the study area. The study concludes that small-scale, resource poor farmers have their local knowledge of land evaluation, know their land quite well in terms of soil quality, potential, limitations for crop production and management options. However, to provide more complete and acceptable paradigm of land evaluation, the IK should be complemented with conventional land system.en_US
dc.language.isoenen_US
dc.publisherMakerere University.en_US
dc.subjectLanden_US
dc.subjectLand Utilizationen_US
dc.subjectFarmersen_US
dc.subjectSoil classificationen_US
dc.subjectIndigenous knowledgeen_US
dc.titleLand evaluation for rainfed agriculture based on farmers' indigenous knowledge: A case study of Mitayana Districten_US
dc.typeThesis/Dissertation (Masters)en_US


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