
PhD graduates Ivan Bamweyana (L) and Christopher Kanyesigye. Photos | Sylivia Katushabe
Monitor’s Sylivia Katushabe and Karim Muyobo present some of the PhD students who graduated from Makerere University last Friday. They were from the College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences (CAES), College of Engineering, Design, Art and Technology (CEDAT), and College of Humanities and Social Sciences (CHUSS).
AKECHA TOBBY
Dr Tobby investigated interaction among improved cowpea actors on market shares and yields in Oyam District.
The study recommends that researchers engaged in improved technology development and promotion should consistently engage with other actors, including the agro input and output traders. This provides an opportunity for sharing information and other services to enhance yields and market shares.
BAGUMA KARUBANGA JULIUS
He examined methods for enhancing flowering, fruit and seed set as well as genetic basis of flowering in cassava. He manipulated red-light photo-period extension (RLE), plant growth regulators (PGRs) and pruning to overcome flowering and seed set challenges for accelerated variety development; and evaluated various cassava accessions for discovery of genes that control flowering in the crop.
KACONCO JAMES
She examined the relationship between master production scheduling, total quality management, blood production, and transfusion sustainability in Uganda in the quest to address blood shortages and safety challenges. Findings showed a strong link between master production scheduling and transfusion sustainability, with demand and supply as key factors. Perishability had an insignificant effect. The study stresses demand management, staff involvement, and customer centric approaches
NALUBWAMA SYLVIA
Dr Nalubwama investigated the integration of dairy cattle into organic pineapple production in Uganda. Her findings revealed that natural pastures were the primary cattle feeds and farmers’ integration decisions were influenced by farming experience, herd size and pineapple acreage. Supplementing dairy cattle with pineapple by product silage improved milk fat content, increased nitrogen and potassium in manure, and reduced gastrointestinal nematodes.
MBAZIIRA JAMES
He assessed the drought dynamics and the extent to which households employed coping strategies to contribute to drought resilience across Uganda’s cattle corridor. The findings demonstrate progressive expansions and transitions from severe to extreme events in the spatial-temporal patterns of drought affecting household resilience at different levels of susceptibility. The study recommends that the Uganda government and other stakeholders focus on integration of traditional coping responses.
NANSEREKO SOPHIE
She assessed jackfruit biodiversity in Kayunga District, Uganda, and explored the use of Reactance Window Drying Technology (RWDT) for preservation and value addition. The study optimised RW drying conditions, achieving high model accuracy, and employed nonlinear regression analysis to establish drying patterns for jackfruit using RW, solar, and oven drying methods. The results suggest that RWDT is a superior preservation method for jackfruit, offering the potential to produce acceptable and nutritious products.
MAKUMA MASSA HENRY
Mukuma investigated bylaws relevant to sustainable crop intensification and their effective implementation among potato farmers in southwestern Uganda. He unrevealed the existing formal and informal bylaws, how they interacted and their level of implementation in enhancing sustainable potato intensification. Bylaws benefited the farmers in potato production and productivity, particularly in providing better seed potatoes, increasing yields, fetching better prices, and consequently, increasing farmers’ incomes.
MUGISA IMMACULATE
She investigated the genetics underlying resistance to the African sweet potato weevils, storage root yield, and dry matter content in sweet potatoes. The study established a fitness cost due to weevil resistance in the form of a 10 percent yield penalty. The study went on to identify 18 genomic markers associated with weevil resistance on chromosomes 4, 7, 10 and 12, and others that control root yield and dry matter content in sweet potato. High-yielding resistant clones identified can be deployed as parental genotypes in further breeding.
ACHOLA ESTHER
She investigated phenotypic resistance to Groundnut Rosette Disease (GRD. The study established six pheno-typically resistant and high yielding genotypes from Uganda, Malawi and Zambia.Achola went on to map GRD resistance on chromosomes A04, B04 and B08 and identify putative genes beneficial in disease resistance and RNA silencing in viruses. She identified five haplotypes that were significant with GRD resistance on chromosomes A04 and B08. Two genotypes, from Uganda possessed all the five haplotypes.
NABASUMBA SYLVIA
She explored the socio psychological factors influencing smallholder farmers’ investment behaviour in seed potato production, motivated by the low investment levels despite the profitability of seed production. The study iden- tified four distinct farmer typologies, each facing unique production constraints. Farmers perceived investing in seed potato production as a lucrative enterprise, although, very costly.
Findings indicated that socio-economic, institutional, and psychological factors significantly influenced investment behaviour.
MUSOKE CHARLES
Musoke investigated the contribution of farmer socioeconomic characteristics, product and service quality attributes to sustained use of certified sweet potato seed (CSS) in Uganda. These observations are important if the sweet potato seed system is to transit from an informal to a formal one thereby controlling the spread of the sweet potato virus disease and seed degeneration, and thus enhancing productivity.
BIRUNGI PAULINE
The study sought to establish how socio-behavioural factors influence collective marketing of rice among smallholder farmers in mid-western Uganda. Whereas collective marketing has great potential to support smallholder rice farmers’ access to markets and increase their bargaining power, limited attention has been paid to organisational attributes and members’ socio-behavioral mechanisms that could affect farmers’ decisions to market collectively.
The study points to the need for change agents and policy makers to support pre-bulking logistics that lower members’ transaction costs and the ability of farmers’ collective marketing arrangements to invest in market access innovations.
BIRUNGI ROSEMIRTA
He investigated the role of gender in agricultural value chains. Results revealed that women are critical primary actors for sustaining pig value chains; however, social referents, especially household members and inadequate capabilities, especially tradable assets mostly constrain women from continuously engaging in commercial activities.
Men mostly derive social benefits especially fame and friends, whereas women mostly consider the pig value chain as a “live bank” from which they can quickly pay for school fees and the welfare of their children.
IDD RAMATHANI
He sought to understand the diversity, spread and management of rice yellow mottle virus disease (RYMVD). Rice is a vital food crop in Uganda, but its production is threatened by rice yellow mottle virus disease (RYMVD), which causes yield losses of up to 100 percent. This research informs breeders, policymakers, and farmers on sustainable RYMV control for Uganda’s rice production.
OCHEN MORRIS
He examined farmers’ perceptions regarding the involvement of soldiers in agricultural inputs and extension Services delivery in Uganda. Findings show that the dilemma of separation of two closely related services based on mandates of agencies responsible persisted throughout all the reforms.
This is due to structural and functional challenges, the missing link being effective coordination. Although soldiers were involved in all the input distribution roles, they were evidently absent in the actual input distribution role. However, farmers were satisfied with their good mobilisation skills.
DOI JUVENTINE BOAZ
He investigated the factors determining farmer selection and retention of shea tree on farm. The findings show that the farmers’ criteria for selection and retention of shea tree on farm were affected by trait preferences. The study also revealed marker association for the traits and the potential candidate genes associated with oil content in shea nuts. The study further revealed the genotypes with high breeding values for oil yield trait and selected them for advancement to improve shea oil productivity in Uganda.
ATWIJUKA ANITA
She examined the decolonial potential of society-based campaigns seeking to preserve culture through creation of kingdoms and skeletal kingdoms in contemporary Uganda. In both 2009 (Buganda) riots and 2019 (Ankole) protest, Uganda experienced incidents that were seen as direct assaults on the cultures of the peoples of these places. The study argues that the campaigns for creation of traditional institutions fuels the politicization of ethnic difference in the sense that they establish ancestry and cultural identity as the basis for political rights in a specific kingdom.
BAMWEYANA IVAN
Ivan Bamweyana examined local climate patterns whereby he sought to model wet and dry conditions so as to facilitate modelling for meaningful decision making at a local scale. Results of the study showed that satellite gridded datasets are an alternative estimate of in situ precipitation data and enable local scale modelling. The results further revealed that different geostatistical algorithms were required to forecast wet and dry conditions within multiple localities.
KANYESIGYE CHRISTOPHER
She examined the effectiveness of water safety plan implementation in urban centres of Uganda. Results showed that WSP implementation in 20 towns largely focused on system assessment but missed out on WSP monitoring, verification and management. The study revealed that the low pH in the Nyaruzinga wetland is due to low molecular weight humic substances under perennial anoxic conditions. The overall evaluation revealed that WSP implementation led to improvement in infrastructure and operational monitoring, customer engagement meetings and training.