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Daily Monitor
Saturday February 06 2021
A farmer applies mulch to his coffee garden. Mulching prevents water loss in a coffee plantation.
PHOTO/GEORGE KATONGOLE.
Summary
The changing climatic patterns require farmers to practice climate-smart agriculture in order to improve farm productivity and profitability. Planting trees is one way to mitigate the effects of climate change in farming.
According to experts at the Uganda Coffee Development Authority (UCDA), trees help improve plant nutrition, soil moisture, thus mitigating some of the effects of climate-change. They also argue that trees are associated with better cup profiles as they allow the coffee to ripen slower. “Trees reduce soil erosion and help soil retain moisture. Fallen tree leaves prevent soil from losing too much moisture, as well as decaying leaves, that fall onto the ground, turn into nutrients for tree growth,” explains Dr Florence Akwatulira, an agro forester at the National Coffee Research Institute (