Gendered Effects of NERICA Upland Rice – The Case of Labor Dynamics in Hoima District, Uganda

Summary, in English

The new NERICA upland rice varieties were developed in Africa for Africa so as to address the continental-wide rice cereal challenge, poverty and food insecurity. To date, the ‘success’ of the dissemination of NERICA amongst smallholder farmers has mainly been established econometrically by measuring production growth or household income gain. This type of analysis allows for capturing shifts in income poverty on household level. But it omits other dimensions of deprivations that on individual level consider the prevalence or absence of empowering elements such as influence on decision making, access to information, and time, as well as physical strains and drudgery. For this reason, this paper sets out to provide an illustration of the impact the introduction of NERICA in Hoima District, Uganda, has had on the gendered labor dynamics in smallholder households there, grounded in the local context and the lived experiences of particularly women farmers. The paper shows that while households that have adopted NERICA, as units, have become better off in economic terms, the extreme labor burden NERICA induces on women exacerbates their time poverty and drudgery.

• Författare: Johanna Bergman-Lodin; Magnus Jirström; Milly Mugenyi
• Avdelning/ar: Institutionen för kulturgeografi och ekonomisk geografi
• Publiceringsår: 2011
• Språk: Engelska
• Dokumenttyp: Konferensbidrag
• Ämne: Human Geography
• Conference name: Africa Rice Congress, "Innovation and Partnerships to Realize Africa's Rice Potential"
• Conference date: 2010-03-22
• Conference place: Bamako, Mali
• Status: Submitted