Hunger is increasing, and so is poverty. This is made worse by unpredictable climatic changes that are affecting agricultural production significantly. 

To get solutions, researchers at Makerere University have vowed to work with farmers and other stakeholders.

During the 2nd International Geographical Science for Resilient Communities, Ecosystems and Livelihoods Under Global Environmental Change (GORILLA) Conference, Dr Gorettie Nabanoga, the principal of the college of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences, noted that as Makerere University researchers, they no longer do research for promotions and publications, but the research that is going to help that individual who requires the knowledge.

“Climate change is real and a lot has to be done by every individual to see change. We are already seeing in Uganda landslides in mountainous areas, we have seen changes in the climatic conditions, and the seasons that used to be for planting have changed. We never used to have rain in December, but today we have an extended long rain season. We need to readjust the way we are doing things. The knowledge we are creating will be easily adopted if the end users are participating in the research processes because those research outputs are going to be addressing specific needs,” Prof Nabanoga said.

In her address, she called upon farmers to move away from substance-smart agriculture to more income-oriented smart agriculture.

“Let us use our resources wisely. We understand farmers’ land holdings are small, but with improved technology and innovation, we can get there. The planet deserves a solution to this scourge that affects us all. We need a meaningful way moving forward to protect nature and leverage new ways of protecting the ecosystem,” she said.

Addressing delegates, Dr Yazidhi Bamutaze, the Deputy Principal College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences, noted that while Uganda already encourages sustainable use of the environment, more needs to be done.

“We should be intentional in ensuring that we tackle the sustainable development goal putting in mind that we have only eight years to hit our targets. As a country, we have some distance to move because we are still grappling with some things, we are in the 136 position out of 163 countries in achieving the sustainable development goals for 2030,” Dr Bamutaze noted.

Dr Bamutaze called upon the public to stop degrading the land, saying that over 60% of Ugandans delve their livelihood from Agriculture.

“If you degrade land, the immediate impact will be getting low yields, if you get low yields, you will get less income, and you will become food insecure and you will not be able to pay school fees and the poverty will remain at the households, if you maintain the land and improve its quality, the value will come in food security and you will not have conflicts in the community,” Dr Bamutaze said.

In her address, Dr Monica Musenero, the Science, Technology and Innovations minister, noted that Uganda’s lag in SDG performance is attributed to a lack of thinking among Ugandans.

“The science we know, and the technology are easily available, but we are heavy technology importers, yet we lack capacity to develop it. We need to shift from buying technology and shipping it to technology transfer and development. We’ve witnessed science and technology but innovation is lacking, we need to make it functional in order to operate above average,” Dr Musenero said.

Dr Musenero noted that the voices of the youth must be integrated into all future programming towards resilient communities, ecosystems and livelihood.

“How do we educate a thinking generation, I am so much intrigued by the youth, they have their own way of thinking and are willing to reimagine,” Dr Musenero said.

This year’s thematic area relates to how to make communities more resilient and exchanging information, knowledge out of research related to land degradation, biodiversity conversation, ecosystem resilient, water management and using geo-information.