The level of significance for the tests was set at 0.05. The study set out to determine the means by which rural fisher folk and farming communities in Uganda gained access to early warning meteorological information.It was noted that 55.33% of the survey respondents were receiving weather information predominantly from the FM radio stations despite the high prevalence of mobile phones in the country. The weather information received was mainly in the form of the three-monthly advance notices of weather conditions.It is of interest to note that individuals in farming communities were twice as likely to receive weather information compared to people in fishing communities. Elsewhere it has been noted that the nature and occupation of the fisher folk may leave them less psychologically aware of how closely climate change affects them as individuals and as a community compared to the farmers . The other factor that may affect the use of EWS notifications is the accuracy of the information sent to the users.

From this survey most of the respondents noted that the information they received was not accurate. Here we think that accurate refers to weather information being local enough for the respondents to use in their day-to-day decisions as has been observed in travel choices made by tourists. The tougher economic conditions of life in the fisher folk communities and questionable accuracy of the information received may have a role to play in observed differences in weather information use by this community compared to the farmers. On the other hand, the difference in access to weather information may also point to perceived differences in value attached to weather information by the two communities,with the farming communities being more dependent on rainfed forms of livelihood. A possible solution to this would be to tailor the early warning information to suit the needs of the fisher folk community by for example giving hourly notices as opposed to week or season long information.The economic/financial value of weather information to the respondents is demonstrated by the responses to their willingness to pay for weather information,with the majority willing to pay more than 1000 UGX per week.

Note that the female respondents were less likely than male respondents to indicate a willingness to pay for weather related information. This has been documented by other research papers from eastern Uganda and other parts of Africa . It is important to cautiously deconstruct this gender unwillingness to pay for access to weather information as advised by Rao et al. . Deconstructing should thus involve a detailed exploration of women’s roles in the generation and control of economic/financial value in the home as defined by their communities or culture.Without this deconstruction any form of paid for access to weather information may aggravate the gender differences in the observed response to climate change events for this population.The observed low use of lightning conductors for 98.27% of homesteads visited points to a very low level of awareness about the various extreme weather events. Also, as summarized in Table 4, the respondents identified only a small number of the extreme weather events for both communities. This points to a potential knowledge gap on the part of the respondents about the nature of extreme weather events associated with climate change and how this can affect them.

This lack of knowledge of extreme weather events or climate change is recognized as one of the barriers to climate change adaptation response. The respondent’s failure to identify some of the more common extreme weather events known to affect the region even as most of them continue receiving weather related information is an additional concern with regards to the resilience of this population . This lack of knowledge about extreme weather events may affect climate change adaptation response at the individual, community and the local leadership levels of society. Megacities are emerging as a result of rural to urban transition due to increased income level and urban population. Because of the projected growing urban population, there is a huge requirement for arable land to feed the population.The conversion of forestland into arable land contributes to deforestation, contributing to the depletion of natural resources like ground water, reduction of biodiversity due to loss of habitat, and increased soil erosion and greenhouse gas emission.

At the same time, the urban population started preferring more processed foods as opposed to traditional foods, resulting in an increased level of health issues. This new pattern of consumption of more processed foods like meat, fruits,and vegetables requires changes in agricultural production systems,especially agricultural intensification. However, agricultural intensification at the field level would result in the intense application of fertilizers and plant protection chemicals, which would further increase pollution of soil and ground water.Development of sustainable agriculture is important to produce stable and healthy food considering food safety and security by managing the resources in a more efficient manner without causing any adverse effect to the environment.