Women play a vital role in Uganda’s rural agricultural sector

Photo credit: Google

A Ugandan farm woman wields a hoe, which often is the only tool the women have available.

Leveling the field for women farmers in Uganda

SUBMITTED BY DERICK H. BOWEN ON WED, 06/17/2015

CO-AUTHORS: DANIEL AYALEW ALI, KLAUS DEININGER, MARGUERITE DUPONCHEL

EXCERPT

A vital role

Women play a vital role in Uganda’s rural agricultural sector and contribute a higher than average share of crop labor in the region. They also make up more than half of Uganda’s agricultural workforce, and a higher proportion of women than men work in farming—76 percent versus 62 percent. Yet compared to men, their productivity is low.

Comparing household farm productivity is problematic, as prior research has concluded. Most female-managed plots in Sub-Saharan Africa are located within male-headed households, which differ significantly from female-headed households where, in most cases, husbands have died, left to work as migrant laborers, or taken on another wife.

Read the full article: The World Bank