I am a PhD holder with research background in plant root contributions to soil carbon sequestration which was also the subject of my postdoc. Uganda is already a signatory to the Paris Agreement on Climate Change (2015) aimed at strengthening the global response to the threat of climate change in the context of sustainable development and efforts to eradicate poverty premised on three principles: (i) inclusivity (leave-no-one behind); (ii) coherence: cooperation, coordination and collaboration; and (iii) linking local actions to global frameworks that is, linking action and policy locally with national, regional and global policy and action. Uganda has fulfilled her obligations as a party to the UNFCCC by for example; putting the National Climate Change Policy (NCCP) in place, with a fully-fledged Parliamentary Committee on Climate Change. Uganda has also established the National Adaptation Programme of Action (NAPA) for climate change. In 2018, Uganda became the first African country to submit her Nationally Determined Contributions (NDC) to the Paris Agreement of Parties (2015) in which she committed to cutting her share of GHGEs by 22% by 2030. To deliver on this target, Uganda urgently needs a comprehensive inventory of the country’s carbon stocks and associated GHGEs as well as rigorous monitoring programmes under contrasting land-use and land cover (LULC) types.

I seek partnerships to build the capacity of Makerere University to quantify soil profile carbon stocks down to one metre and direct and indirect measurement of associated greenhouse gas emissions (GHGEs) under contrasting but paired LULC types in Uganda, a crucial catchment for the lower riparian states that depend on Lake Victoria and River Nile including Sudan, Ethiopia, Egypt and the Mediterranean Sea for freshwater supplies that are threatened by poor agro-pastoral activities around these crucial water resources. Evidence-based data on carbon stocks, sequestration potential and GHGEs of pristine ecosystems around these water resources and how they have been impacted by land use and land cover changes is very crucial for conservation efforts. Carbon stocks and GHGE gradients between pristine land covers and those with varying degrees of disturbance intensity can shed light on the impact of human activity and if the carbon is dated, it is possible to estimate the rates of change in soil carbon stocks and GHGEs as a result of pinpointed human activities. This is a key step towards engaging both public and private partners from regional and the international community in promoting food security and environmental conservation on issues among the agro-pastoral communities on three fronts: 1) climate change adaptation policy and planning; 2) climate change mitigation policy and planning; and 3) measurement, reporting and verification (MRV) of mitigation actions and interventions.

Makerere University is the largest and oldest University in Uganda and one of the very first ones in Africa which is highly ranked in terms of performance in Africa. At one time it was ranked the second best after University of Cape Town and has since oscillated between the third and sixth position on the continent. Currently, the University is partitioned into about six colleges including the College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences (CAES) where I belong. CAES is divided into three schools: School of Agricultural Sciences (SAS) where I belong to; School of Forestry, Environmental and Geographical sciences (SFEGS) and School of Food Technology and Nutrition (SFTN). SAS comprises of three departments: Department of Extension and Innovation Studies (DEIS), Department of Agricultural and Natural Resources Economics (DANRE), and Department of Agricultural Production (DAP) where I belong to. DAP is a fusion of three former departments: Deartment of Animal Science; Department of Crop Science and Department of Soil Science (where I belong to). The Department of Soil Science houses the only public Soil, Plant and Water Analytical Laboratory in Uganda which I coordinate. These laboratory serves both the commercial and academic customers including students who conduct research in partial fulfillment of the requirements for award of Honours BSc degrees. Apart from these,, the rest of the customers are charged a modest fee for the analyses. Among the tests the Lab is not able to conduct is that of dry combustion for estimation of total carbon in both soil and organic materials e.g. using LECO. The Lab is not also equipped for isotope ratio mass spectrometer analyses and we lack capacity to quantify greenhouse gases which would require equipping the Lab with a gas chromatograph (GC) Analyser. The alternative of collecting these gases using the chamber method and shipping vials to equipped labs in the Global North requires a sustainable partnership which might be enabled by this EJP SOIL call. It might also be an opportunity to acquire crucial equipment for direct field measurement of soil respiration using state-of-the-art equipment.