Farmers’ perceptions of drought and other production constraints, drought mitigation options, and their implications for groundnut breeding in Uganda

A participatory rural appraisal was conducted in selected groundnut growing areas of Uganda to determine how smallholder farmers perceive and cope with drought, identify farmers’ constraints, and study the production systems, and varietal preferences in groundnut production. Majority of farmers surveyed, agreed that drought is a major production constraint. The local drought perceptions were described by farmers (55.7%) as warm/hot windy conditions in eastern (55.7%), while in the northern region, little rainfall (82.5%) and hot sunny weather in the mid-western region (48.3%). The majority of farmers surveyed, 81.7%, 77.6%, and 86.6% from eastern, northern and mid-western region, respectively, indicated that the major impact of drought was low yields. However, most of farmers especially from northern and mid-western grow landraces and use early planting to cope with drought. Therefore, knowledge of farmers’ perceptions on drought and coping strategies provides an entry point for improving farmers’ preferred varieties for drought tolerance.