Rural household vulnerability to climate risk in Uganda

Vulnerability assessment is fundamental for informing adaptation to climate change policy. The aim of this study is to evaluate the vulnerability of rural subsistence farmers in Uganda to climate risk. A mixed methods approach used semi-structured and guided interviews, and participatory techniques to explore perception, livelihood response and socio-economic status. Perception of climate risk varied, with wealthier farmers perceiving drought as highest risk, whilst poorer farmers perceived extreme heavy rainfall. Farmers implemented many general livelihood coping and anticipatory responses (54.7 %) to perceived impacts from drought, rainfall variability and extreme heavy rainfall. Examples included food storage, livestock maintenance and planting drought-resistant varieties. Other responses (45.3 %) were specific to individual climatic events, and farmers had no response to cope with rainfall variability. Climate risk was not the only driver of vulnerability. Soil infertility, pests and diseases, and economic instability also sustained decreasing trends in income. Adaptive capacity of households differed with external and internal attributes of sensitivity. Farmers with more land, education, access to governmental extension, a non-farm livelihood, larger households and older age had more capacity to buffer shock through increased assets and entitlements than poorer farmers who were more likely to engage in opportunistic behaviour like casual labouring. Few livelihood responses associated with perceived threat from the climate indicating response to a broader range of stressors. Conclusions determined inequality in livelihood response as a fundamental driver in households' ability to cope and adapt to climate risk.