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Over 450 SHARP+ surveys have just been conducted in the Cattle Corridor in Uganda, within the Scaling up Climate Ambition on Land Use and Agriculture through Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) and National Adaptation Plans (NAPs) programme (SCALA), led by FAO and UNDP.

This programme supports twelve countries in Africa, Asia and Latin America to respond to the urgent need to increase action to better respond to climate change and its impacts on the agricultural and land use sectors.  

In Uganda’s cattle corridor, agriculture is today strongly affected by increasing climatic shocks and disturbances, directly resulting in reduced yields and water scarcity and considerably weakening the livelihoods and food security of the rural population. Indeed, crop and livestock production represent the predominant source of sustenance and livelihood in the region and is therefore a priority area for climate change adaptation. In addition, this sector also represents a major driver of the country’s greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, rangeland degradation, bush fires and land use change.

SHARP+ was therefore used to identify the main climate and non-climate related hazards and their impacts on farming systems and households, as well as socio-economic and environmental drivers of vulnerability, with the aim of strengthening the resilience of smallholder farmer and pastoralist households and thus enhancing food security in the region.

In order to carry out these surveys, the SHARP+ tool was first carefully reviewed and adapted to the local context and six supervisors were trained by the SHARP team, who in turn trained twenty-four enumerators from local district government and farmer organizations to use the tool in the field. The household surveys were then conducted in five different farming systems: Western Banana Coffee Cattle System; Pastoral and Annual Crop system; Banana Millet Cotton System; Annual Cropping and Cattle Teso System; and Annual Cropping and Cattle Northern System, spanning six representative districts (Kamuli, Katakwi, Isingiro, Nakasongola and Amudat, Amolatar).

The data will be further validated through multi-stakeholder engagement at the community level so as to identify transformative and inclusive adaptation actions that respond to the needs, capacities and vulnerabilities of smallholders and map out adaptive pathways towards climate resilience at the farming system-level. The results will be used by local district governments for climate-risk informed planning, implementation and resource mobilization, specifically through the integration of the transformative climate actions identified into district development plans and projects to increase farmers' resilience and reduce GHG emissions in the cattle corridor.

Learn more about the SCALA programme: FAO SCALA | UNDP SCALA