Household survey data: incentives influencing tree planting in the Albertine Rift Region of Uganda

The study assessed the influence of incentives on tree planting by farmers in Kiryanga Sub county, Kagadi district, Albertine Rift Region, Western Uganda. Key informant interviews, focus group discussions and household interviews were conducted to generate data on the influence of incentives on tree planting. The χ2 test established associations between incentives and tree planting while a t-test was conducted to test for differences in characteristics of non-tree farmers and tree farmers. Results indicate that incentives are important in tree planting although some did not match farmers’ interests (χ2 = 35.13, p <0.05). The incentives that were significant were: provision of tree seedlings (84.6%) and cash payments (69.4%) while farm tours as an incentive did not match farmers’ interests. The success attributed to incentives mainly depended on land size, and tree species’ preferences. The study concluded that, provision of tree seedlings and cash payments should be the incentives to be promoted. It is therefore important that stakeholders adopt incentive-based tree planting. We undertook a study in Kiryanga Sub County, located in Kagadi district, Buyaga East County in the Albertine Region. Kiryanga Sub County was one of the eight Sub Counties in the three districts of the Albertine Rift Region - Hoima, Kagadi and Kakumiro, where the Murchison‐Semliki REDD+ Pilot Project was involved in incentive-based tree planting (Wieland, 2012). Forests in Kiryanga are under threat leading to loss of biodiversity (NEMA, 2009).  We conducted 11 Key informant interviews, 6 focus group discussions and 218 household interviews to generate information on the influence of incentives on tree planting among both tree farmers and non-tree farmers. We restricted our survey to an 18 year time period; that is, from 2000 to 2018. The key questions we asked were: 1) which incentives were given for tree planting? and 2) which incentives were more preferred by farmers?