“If you have business and you have your own money you don’t suffer in your life. I can take my children to school, buy medicine when they are sick. I don’t depend entirely on my husband. I am even saving money.”
These are the words of Ayilo, a woman entrepreneur in the Kiryandongo District in Western Uganda. Her story reveals the inequality experienced by rural women in Uganda – unequal access to finance, land, markets and negotiating prices for their produce. But it also shows there is a way out of this trap.
“I started by growing maize but everyone around was also growing maize.
“Men were selling a lot more maize than us women: men own land, women can only rent land. Men negotiate better when they travel far to look for markets, we women stay at home while looking after our children and we lack access to markets for our produce. I had to move from maize to chia because chia business is more profitable.”
The United Nations Food and Agricultural Organization states: “Women play a vital role in Uganda’s rural agricultural sector and contribute a higher-than-average share of crop labour in the region. A higher proportion of women than men work in farming – 76% versus 62%. Yet compared to men, their productivity is low.”
We visited Kiryandongo District in north-western Uganda and were very much impressed with the rural women entrepreneurs growing tobacco, maize, sunflower and chia. Unlike tobacco and maize, which are mass-produced, chia business is a niche that has gained momentum among women farmers. We wanted to know more about the entrepreneurial journeys of women in the chia business.
The start-up struggle
When we spoke to a group a of women in the chia business, they provided us with striking stories about the challenges they faced. For a start, they had to overcome gender biases in local traditions before they could access farmland to grow chia and capital to buy seeds and equipment.
Consider the case of Apiole, who is married with seven children. Her breakthrough came when her husband allowed her to start growing chia seeds on the family farm after a local village savings group had agreed to lend her money at very low interest.
When asked why she was unable to access land and capital independently of her husband she said: “It is very hard for a woman to get a loan because I don’t have a house or land as collateral. The house and land belongs to my husband. Some of us women need bigger loans but it is very hard to get a loan unless you go to microfinance with your husband to sign.”
Then the women also face the same challenges as food crop businesses of all sizes everywhere in Uganda. Adubango said: “The biggest challenge I face is weather.”
The women also suffer from a lack of basic book-keeping knowledge. For Ayia, “we need to know whether our business is profitable and how to calculate our basic costs from the product and access to markets for our produce”.
Even women who have received training may find it hard to reach markets for their products. Mena said: “We did very well at first and felt proud because we made money. Many women are looking for new opportunities to offer possible ways out of poverty, hence training adds value to a woman’s life. But, when you train someone and there is no market, then what can the farmer do?”
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Sylvia Gavigan Sarah Kyejjusa | Radio Free (2020-09-04T10:21:25+00:00) In Uganda, rural women entrepreneurs are escaping poverty with teamwork and training. Retrieved from https://www.radiofree.org/2020/09/04/in-uganda-rural-women-entrepreneurs-are-escaping-poverty-with-teamwork-and-training/
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