ABER, CINDERELLA2026-10-302026-10-302026-10http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.14270/1076The current decrease in crop yield has elevated food insecurity with over a billion people affected across the globe and has been attributed to climate change and poor soil quality. This challenge is more pronounced in the developing countries with devastating economic constraints, which deprive people of food security. As such, better and sustainable interventions that improve the soil and contribute to climate change adaptation and mitigation for enhanced yield is needed. A two-season experiment was conducted at Gulu aiming at exploring the effect of conservation agriculture (CA) and biochar on soil carbon, greenhouse gas emission and grain yield of pigeon pea. The experiment followed Randomized Complete Block Design (RCBD) with four treatments replicated four times. The treatments included (i) CA with maize – pigeon pea rotation (CA+PP), (ii) CA with one time biochar application (4 tons/ha) and maize – pigeon pea rotation (CA+BC+PP), (iii) conventional agriculture with maize – pigeon pea rotation (Conv+PP), (iv) CA with half biochar (2t, 1t & 1t/ha per year) and maize – pigeon pea rotation (CA+BC+BC+PP), (v) conventional agriculture with maize monocropping (Conv+MM). The results from experiment showed that CA and biochar improved total soil organic carbon and readily oxidizable carbon and as well as increasing the biomass and grain yield of pigeon pea. The highest total soil organic carbon content of 1.6 – 1.99% and readily oxidizable carbon of 0.05 – 0.059% were recorded in CA+BC+PP compared to total soil organic carbon of 1.5 – 1.53% and readily oxidizable carbon 0.03 - 0.05% in conventional practice. Similarly, a reduction in CO2 emission from 294 to 218 mg CO2-C m-2h-1 and CH4 emission from 63.4 to 21.8 µg CH4-C m-2h-1 was registered in the treatments having climate smart agriculture practices. The biomass at harvest was highest at 13.69 tons/ha in CA+BC+PP in season 1 compared to that of conventional plot of 8.75 tons/ha with corresponding grains yield of 2.11 tons/ha and 1.76 tons/ha, respectively. This pattern of biomass and grain yield between the two treatments was also registered in the second growing cycle though with an overall lower yield. Therefore, CA and biochar can contribute to food security by increasing yield and climate change mitigation through soil C sequestration and reduced greenhouse gas emission. As such, CA practices and biochar application can be considered as sustainable and can contribute to climate resilience.enConservation agriculturebiochargreenhouse gas emissionpigeon peayield.Thesis