Identifying smallholder farming system typologies in southcentral Uganda: implications for food security

Abstract Smallholder farmers produce most of the food in Uganda, yet they are some of the world’s most food insecure. To better understand the heterogeneity among smallholders and promote contextualized sustainable development policies that address food insecurity, this study created farming typologies for 150 farming households in southcentral Uganda. The cross-sectional survey was administered in Masaka District and collected data on farm (production) and farmer (socio-economic) characteristics. By combining Factor Analysis on Mixed Data (FAMD) and Hierarchical Clustering on Principal Components (HCPC), we developed three distinct farm typologies. Half of the households in Typology 1 grew coffee; all of the households in Typology 2 grew bananas; and all of the households in Typology 3 specialized in banana-coffee production. The typologies that grew bananas experienced less fluctuations in seasonal food security than those that did not, and Typology 3 was identified as the most resilient to food insecurity. The greatest differences between typologies were in how land was acquired (Typology 1 and 2 vs. Typology 3), walking time to the land (Typology 1 and 2 vs. Typology 3) and inorganic fertilizer use in coffee (Typology 1 vs. Typology 3). We concluded that households in southcentral Uganda decide on a cropping system based on their land rights (i.e. how the land was acquired) and resource endowment, specifically availability of labor and capital. Dedicating even a small proportion of land to perennials and adopting active field management was associated with reduced food insecurity. Agricultural development policies should therefore be geared towards addressing these issues.