Bishop Stuart University

Background: Aquaculture intensification generates nitrogenous and phosphorus-rich effluents that threaten aquatic ecosystems. Fermented plant-based feeds are increasingly used to enhance nutrient digestibility and protein availability, yet their impact on effluent water quality remains poorly understood. Understanding how substrates such as banana, jackfruit seeds, and sweet potato influence ammonia, nitrite, BOD, and phosphates is critical for developing sustainable feeding strategies and minimizing environmental pollution in intensive African catfish (Clarias gariepinus) culture. Objectives: This study aimed to evaluate the effects of solid-state fermented ripe banana, jackfruit seeds, and sweet potato tuber feeds on effluent water quality in African catfish (Clarias gariepinus), focusing on ammonia, nitrites, phosphates, BOD, copper, EC, and microbial composition to identify environmentally safer feed options. Methods: African catfish (Clarias gariepinus) fingerlings were stocked in 50 L glass aquaria and fed either fermented ripe banana, jackfruit seeds, sweet potato tubers, or commercial feed as control. Each treatment was triplicated in a completely randomized design. Effluent water was sampled weekly for four weeks to measure total ammonia nitrogen (TAN), nitrites, phosphates, biochemical oxygen demand (BOD₅), copper concentration, electrical conductivity (EC), pH, and microbial composition. TAN and nitrites were determined using colorimetric HS aqua test kits, phosphates and copper via Palin 7100 photometer, BOD₅ with a magnetic stir BOD system, and microbial counts on nutrient agar. Statistical differences were assessed using Kruskal-Wallis and Dunn's post hoc tests (p < 0.05). Results: Effluent water from tanks fed fermented banana and sweet potato exhibited lower total ammonia nitrogen (0.2–0.3 mg L⁻¹) and nitrites (0.01–0.12 mg L⁻¹) compared to jackfruit seeds (TAN 1.3 p < 0.05 mg L⁻¹, nitrites 0.75 p < 0.05 mg L⁻¹) and commercial feed (TAN 2.7 mg L⁻¹, nitrites 0 mg L⁻¹). Phosphate concentrations and biochemical oxygen demand (BOD₅) exceeded regulatory limits in all treatments except partial reduction in sweet potato tanks. Copper concentrations and electrical conductivity remained below permissible limits across all feeds. Microbial analysis revealed dominance of Bacillus and Lactobacillus species, with highest Bacillus counts in jackfruit seed tanks and Lactobacillus in banana tanks. Kruskal-Wallis tests confirmed significant differences (p < 0.05) among treatments for TAN, nitrites, phosphates, BOD₅, copper, EC, and microbial counts. Conclusion: The study demonstrated the potential of specific fermented plant-based feed ingredients to mitigate nitrogen pollution in aquaculture systems. In particular, the inclusion of fermented ripe banana and sweet potato tubers in fish diets was shown to reduce ammonia and nitrite concentrations in culture water and effluent. However, high BOD and phosphate persisted, revealing a knowledge gap on nutrient release and effluent dynamics, guiding future sustainable feed research.

Urban farming integrated with Climate-Smart Agriculture (CSA) practices offers a pathway to enhanced food security and climate resilience in rapidly urbanising Uganda. However, the extent of women’s engagement with CSA practices and the factors influencing their participation is not well understood and it is not clear in empirical literature. This study focused on urban women farmers in Mbarara City, Western Uganda. Specifically, it identifies practices currently used, establishes the extent of participation, and determines the factors influencing the adoption of CSA practices. Data were collected from 150 women farmers using a cross-sectional survey. Descriptive statistics and a Likert scale were used to assess the extent of participation, while a Multivariate Probit (MVP) model was employed to identify influencing factors. Results indicated that 74.15

Refugee women in Uganda, face systemic challenges that undermine their ability to achieve economic autonomy despite their resilience. Drawing on testimonies from 39 respondents at the Nakivale Refugee Settlement, this study examines how personal agency, institutional support, and community-based systems interact to shape economic empowerment within Uganda’s refugee policies. The narratives were analyzed thematically through the lens of the right to stay, migrate, and return framework, while allowing respondents’ voices to challenge and refine its assumptions. Findings show that while women demonstrate self-determination through entrepreneurial initiatives and collective savings groups, their autonomy is constrained by gendered inequalities, limited access to financial resources, and insufficient institutional support. Women consistently described fear of gender-based violence and economic insecurity as decisive factors shaping mobility decisions, underscoring that migration is perceived less as opportunity than as survival necessity. Existing programs such as microfinance and savings groups provide short-term relief but fail to enable business scaling, leaving women confined to survival strategies. The study critiques the right to stay framework, arguing that autonomy cannot be fully realized without addressing structural constraints and gendered barriers. Policy implications include expanding access to larger loans, integrating business training and financial literacy, and strengthening community-based support systems. Ultimately, the respondents’ experiences compel a feminist refinement of the right to stay: autonomy must be understood as relational, structurally contingent, and gendered, with dignity rather than survival at the heart of the right to remain.

Predicting whether a goat doe will conceive following a mating event is a computationally tractable binary classification problem with direct implications for smallholder farm management in resource-constrained settings. This study developed, evaluated, and compared five machine learning classification algorithms. Logistic Regression (LR), Random Forest (RF), XGBoost, Support Vector Machine (SVM), and Artificial Neural Network (ANN) for predicting conception success using 900 indigenous doe-mating records from 240 smallholder farms across four agro-ecological zones of Uganda. The study employed a rigorous evaluation framework, including stratified 80/20 train-test splitting, 10-fold cross-validation, within-fold SMOTE resampling (applied strictly within each training fold to prevent data leakage, as confirmed in Sect. 3.2), and 11 performance metrics covering discrimination, calibration, and class-specific detection. Logistic Regression achieved the highest test set ROC-AUC (0.69086908 [95

IntroductionSmallholder farmers in refugee settlements constitute one of the most climate-vulnerable populations globally, yet their attitudes and practices toward climate change management remain poorly understood. This study assessed the attitudes and practices of smallholder crop farmers toward climate change management in Nakivale Refugee Settlement, Uganda and examined the association between attitudes and adoption of CSA practices.Methods A cross-sectional mixed-methods design was employed. Quantitative data were collected from 384 smallholder farmers using structured questionnaires; qualitative data were gathered through key informant interviews and field observations. Descriptive statistics, chi-square tests and binary logistic regression were used for analysis.ResultsA majority of farmers (65%) held mixed attitudes while 32% demonstrated positive attitudes and 3% negative attitudes. Most farmers expressed willingness to adopt CSA practices and accepted personal responsibility. Seventy-nine percent had adopted at least one CSA practice, with crop diversification and agroforestry being most prevalent. Key barriers to adoption included lack of financial resources, inadequate inputs, limited access to training and land tenure insecurity. While attitude was significantly associated with CSA adoption in chi-square analysis (p < 0.001), logistic regression controlling for socio-demographic factors showed that positive attitude was not consistently associated with adoption, underscoring the importance of structural barriers.DiscussionFarmers in Nakivale have mixed to positive attitudes toward climate change adaptation and have begun adopting diverse resilience practices, yet structural and resource barriers limit the translation of willing attitudes into sustained action. Targeted financial support, improved extension services and land tenure security are critical for deepening CSA adoption in this vulnerable refugee farming community.