Pastoral community coping and adaptation strategies to manage household food insecurity consequent to climatic hazards in the cattle corridor of Uganda

Establishing short and long term measures that pastoral and agropastoral households use to ensure they have access to food in periods of climate extremes could provide insights into ways to support households in similar conditions. Using semi-structured elicitation, 15 purposively selected participants from case households and 13 community leaders, in the central cattle corridor of Uganda were interviewed in January to February 2013. Thematic analysis revealed four coping strategies: harvesting immature food crops, selling off cattle, searching for alternative water sources and using alternative non-production-based means to access food. Three adaptation strategies identified were: diversifying livelihood activities, changing agricultural practices and investing in alternative water sources. Several strategies were related to incremental crop system changes, to maintain the existing way of practice. However, some were transformational, like formerly specialized livestock keepers taking on crop farming. Some strategies presented environmentally erosive effects; which could be curbed by evaluating the opportunity cost of diversification and transformative practices in relation to incremental adaptation. Insights gleaned could assist researchers to consider aspects for in-depth adaptation analysis and inform on how policies and institutions in Uganda could be used to facilitate, rather than undermine, pastoralists' coping and adaptation; and thus guide interventions to strengthen food security.