Coffee ranks high in terms of growth, trade, and consumption across the world. Although there has been an increasing trend in its consumption as a beverage across the globe, its on-farm production and productivity are threatened by climate change in the dominant coffee-growing regions. Smallholder farmers produce about 80% of the world’s coffee and are constrained in adopting climate-smart improved technologies. Climate change and livelihoods are interconnected, and understanding and strengthening their linkages is crucial in generating sustainable coffee supplies. This paper analyzed climate change and mitigation components in the context of livelihoods under smallholder coffee farming systems. An online search of globally published journal articles was done in the Web of Science and Google Scholar databases. Bibliographic and metadata analysis was done using VOSviewer software, while the publication trend of the included articles was analyzed using Mann–Kendall. Overall, this review reveals that livelihood assets owned by the coffee farmer have a strong bearing on the adaptation and mitigation of climate change, while Fairtrade certification has mixed effects on farmers’ income and well-being. Agroforestry is a major climate change adaptation strategy under coffee farming and is linked to the livelihood status of the farmer, gender, and certification. This review echoes the strong linkage between agroforestry, livelihood components, and Fairtrade certification under smallholder farmers based on the empirical researched information available.

Uganda is gradually transitioning from communal to private land tenure systems. However, establishing privatized land rights has faced ongoing criticism, particularly concerning their impact on vulnerable groups. Despite the enactment of a national land policy, its benefits have not fully reached rural populations. Issues of land tenure insecurity and unclear ownership continue to generate confusion and have reportedly weakened traditional communal land systems, undermining sustainable agricultural production and long-term investment. This paper examines rural land rights, land markets, and the broader structural transformation of Uganda’s land sector, drawing on the existing literature and published reports. This review reveals that land tenure and administrative challenges persist, largely due to the dominance of customary tenure systems. Although land markets are active, they remain imperfect due to tenure insecurity and legal ambiguities. The findings highlight the need for increased public sensitization regarding land policy, gender-sensitive policies that promote joint ownership, continuous incentives for formalization, the acquisition of land documents, and the harmonization and strengthening of relevant land governance institutions.

Sustainable management of land and its ecosystem requires well-documented Land-use and Land Cover changes (LULCCs) that have occurred over time. The objective of this study was to document the LULCCs, determine their relationship with climate and population changes in Western Uganda, and provide evidence to support decision-making in this region. This study utilized satellite images for the years 1992, 2000, 2010, and 2020 obtained from the European Space Agency Climate Change Initiative (ESA CCI), Climatic data from NASA, and Population Data from the Uganda Bureau of Statistics (UBoS). LULCCs and their influencers were characterized in the region, for the period 1992 to 2020. ArcGIS Pro Software Program was used to Filter time series data using Definition Query, while the scatterplot was employed to determine the relationship between changes in climate and population on LULCCs. Results indicate that LULC is dominated by agriculture, covering (66.46%), followed by forests (16.22%), waterbodies (8.0%), grassland, shrubland, wetland, and urban areas at (6.11%), (2.63%), (0.49%) and (0.1%) respectively. From 1992 to 2020, the area under agriculture, forest and urban increased by 0.1%, 0.1%, and 0.08%, respectively, while Grassland, wetland, and shrubland declined by (0.22%), (0.05%), and (0.01%) respectively. LULCCs for areas under wetland, grassland, and urban areas have a stronger relationship with precipitation and population growth. This information can be used by the decision-makers at the local, district, and national levels to better guide land-use practices aimed at sustainable land-use management for the current and future generations.

Background: The relationship between shifts in agricultural land use, sowing structures, yield of major crops and food security necessitate studies to address today’s global challenges such as accelerating economic growthsustaining livelihoods as well as mitigating food insecurity and climate change. Land use changes and utilisation, and sowing structures directly influence both the availability and accessibility of food to the growing global population thus a need for sustainable strategies and policies aimed at addressing the need for adequate food. The contrasting temperate climate of Hungary and the tropical climate of Uganda leads to different land use categories, crop sowing structures, and production of major crops. Therefore, the objective of this study was to analyse the land use, sowing patterns, and crop yield changes for the major industrial and food crops in Hungary and Uganda. Methods: Databases such as Hungarian Central Statistical Office, the World Bank, and the Uganda Bureau of Statistics, covering the period from 2000 to 2019 were the sources of the study data excluding the covid19 period and years later. The data were analysed using XLSTAT, while a trend analysis was performed using the Mann-Kendall test at a 95% confidence level (α = 0.05) using EVIEWS software. Land use and land cover (LULC) data from the archives of Uganda National Forest Authority (NFA) and Hungary satellite imagery from NASA EarthData and DIVA GIS was imported to ArcGIS pro for mapping. Results: The trend analysis of the arable land area in both countries using the Mann-Kendall Test indicated a significant positive increase ( P = 0.0001 ) with the model fit value of 85.59% for Hungary and 83.42% for Uganda. Hungary’s agricultural land use slightly declined by 9.3% compared to 19.5% increase of agriculture land use in Uganda. While forest land increased by 15.3% in Hungary, Uganda recorded a 41.9% forest loss to other land use forms. The sowing structures in Hungary remained relatively stable, with minor reductions in maize and wheat areas, while Uganda had a substantial increase in maize cultivation by 40%, offset by a 15.4% decrease in banana cultivation. Maize yields increased by 20% (Hungary) and 38.9% (Uganda), wheat yields increased by 10% in Hungary while banana yields declined by 30% in Uganda. Conclusions: Our study has highlighted how sustainability is at risk where increasing agriculture land in Uganda comes at the expense of forest virgin high productive land while strategic sustainability policies of Hungary have converted less productive agricultural fields into forest cover. A need for increased awareness and implementation of available land policies, international and national policy frameworks and guidelines among private agricultural investors, communities, affected land users and financial institutions in Uganda would streamline land use.

Climate change poses growing risks to coffee farming in Uganda. However, households do not adapt to the same degree, and it remains unclear which household resources contribute to differences in adaptation. This study examines the specific household resources associated with climate adaptation among 376 smallholder coffee-farming households across four districts in Southwestern Uganda. Adaptation was measured using a count of adopted practices and a continuous index derived from Principal Component Analysis (PCA), with Multiple Correspondence Analysis (MCA) used as a robustness check. The analysis examined constituent household resources separately to assess whether broad livelihood-capital categories obscure divergent relationships among their components. Household size, knowledge exchange with other farmers, training, and ownership of basic farm tools were the most consistent positive correlates of adaptation. Years of coffee-farming experience, by contrast, showed a negative relationship with adaptation, opposite to the direction observed for household size despite both being classified within the human-capital domain. A composite human-capital specification showed weaker statistical fit than the disaggregated specification. A similar divergence occurred within financial capital: off-farm income showed a positive relationship with adaptation, whereas access to credit did not. Within physical capital, tool ownership was positively related to adaptation, whereas irrigation equipment, owned by only 1.6% of households, was not statistically significant. These findings suggest that policies to strengthen climate adaptation among smallholder coffee farmers should prioritize farmer-to-farmer knowledge exchange, training, and access to basic farm tools. Additionally, findings caution against treating broad livelihood-capital categories as internally homogeneous because constituent resources may have different or opposing relationships with adaptation.

Uganda, just like its counterparts around the globe, is transforming its land tenure systems, from communal systems to private individual ownership systems. However, through the establishment of privatized land rights, several criticisms and collisions have continuously marred the government's well-intentioned vision. They claim that this will negatively impact vulnerable groups, such as women, the disabled, and children. In Uganda, while structural transformation occurred in the economy at least thirty years ago, followed by the enactment of the land policy, the issue of rights through titling of individual ownership is not fully implemented to even 50% in the rural areas. This tenure security and ownership empowerment continues to bleed confusion and reportedly leads to the weakening of traditional communal land tenure systems and erosion of land rights, thus hampering sustainable agricultural production and investment. This paper, therefore, examines rural land rights, markets, and land structural transformation in Uganda, with a specific focus on the rural areas. In this work, several papers are reviewed to get facts about existing land rights, land market structure, performance, and challenges associated with them. Review analysis reveals three main issues: there's a lack of awareness of the new land policies and their implementation, land tenure security is not yet guaranteed, and therefore the vulnerable groups are not fully secure, and land markets, though not yet efficient, are increasing exponentially in many areas. In conclusion, this paper recommends the sensitization of the public, especially the rural landowners and institutions, continuous incentivization of formalization and acquisition of land documents, and finally the need to harmonize with different institutions on the implementation of existing land laws and policies.