Crop Choice, Drought and Gender: New Insights from Smallholders’ Response to Weather Shocks in Rural Uganda

Abstract

We analyse gender differences in the response of smallholder farmers to droughts,taking the duration and severity of the event into account. Using a novel weathershock measure that combines spatial rainfall data with detailed cropping calendars,survey data from Uganda and standard econometric techniques, we find thatadverse weather events provide an opportunity for women to enter the commercialcrop market by allocating land from subsistence to income generating crops. Thiscounterintuitive pattern is, in part, explained by the greater propensity of men toallocate time to non-agricultural activities in the event of weather shocks.