Spatial and Gender Dimensions of IPM Adoption in Uganda

Abstract

This research on gender and tomato production in rural sub-county of Busukuma in Uganda explores the roles that distance and mobility play in adoption of environmentally friendly crop protection practices. Uganda's National Agricultural Research Organization (NARO) prioritized blight and bacterial wilt as significant detrimental crop diseases for tomatoes, an important high-value horticulture crop. Tomato farmers have also identified these diseases as primary constraints for crop production and have employed chemical pesticides to reduce crop losses. One focus of the Integrated Pest Management Collaborative Research Support Program (IPM CRSP), which is managed by Virginia Tech, has been the development of an IPM package to lower the use of pesticides in tomato production while reducing the incidence of such crop diseases. Recommended practices increase yields, save money on inputs, and improve health conditions.

Women are responsible for the majority of food production in sub-Saharan Africa; therefore, an understanding of women's issues is critical for the success of agricultural projects, such as the IPM program in Uganda. This research seeks to determine problems women farmers face in adopting the farming practices recommended by the IPM CRSP. Gender-specific constraints make adopting IPM more costly and time-consuming for women. Surveys, interviews, focus group discussions and GIS analysis were completed to determine if adoption of the recommended IPM package is affected by gender constraints in mobility and distances to inputs.