**7. Conclusion**

There is a missing link for a socio-economic assessment of what defines the capacity and initiative for adaptation among smallholder farming communities to *The Impacts of Climate Change in Lwengo, Uganda DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.97279*

**Figure 6.** *Banana plants destroyed by heavy wind.*

**Figure 7.** *A heap of snow around a banana plant after a heavy down pour.*

adopt climate change adaptation practices. Since, farming communities are very sensitive to climate change in the Ugandan region, it was noticed over the past three decades, that the temperature rises and low rainfall have been a fundamental issue forfarmers trying to boost seasonal farm yields.

Other barriers in the form of knowledge shortages, lack of finance for implementing improved technologies, the absence of irrigation and the short supply of labour are problematic for climate change management and adaptation in the area. Owing to this, Smallholder farmers can come up with adaptation strategies such as soil co nservation, mixed cropping, change of planting dates, tree planting/

**Figure 8.** *Maize plants destroyed by strong wind.*

agroforestry, and furrow irrigation. This sustainable adaptation would help the ongoing on -farm practices that farmers modify on a seasonal basis to cope with climate change with the goal of improving yield and land productivity. Such activities are location-specific, regulated by policy structures, have a temporal aspect, and are based on farmers' dynamism. On one hand, the use of adaptation practices and behavior, which are imposed without recognizing the historical environmental characteristics of a region, is often presented as re-active to the immediate response to climate change events. For example, sometimes urgent steps taken by the authorities and others in cases of droughts and f loods to reinstate an 'equilibrium' within that environment. Higher-level organizations are also required to prepare for adaptation in an anticipatory manner by formulating legislation, proposing adaptation projects, such as Climate Smart Agriculture, and most recently, through the National Action Plans for Adaptation (NAPAs). The NAPAs have for the most part been developed by countries by giving limited attention to factors that drive farmers' decision-making around implementation [27]. As a result, smallholder farmers are therefore practicing different adaptation strategies on their farms, including sub -optimal ones, with the option of adaptation measures that are known to be influenced by different factors including, sex, age, farming experience, family size (household members), membership (Group affiliation of members), Shock floods, Land size, Farm inputs, Landscape position, Level of Education, Crop yield, and Farm income [28–31]. This study explores how these drivers affect the decision-making of farmers in relation to adaptation to climate change. Understanding the relative value of these parameters would allow farmers to use viable adaptation practices easily and to address famine and major constraints on crop production.

*The Impacts of Climate Change in Lwengo, Uganda DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.97279*
