Gender and Access to Land for Urban Agriculture in Kampala, Uganda
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Gender and Access to Land for urban agriculture in Kampala, Uganda rban and periurban farming are settlements develop in these areas overtime. increasingly important as a source of (Married women in Kigobe-Rubaga Division- U income and food for the urban Kampala, 2003) population in Uganda. Access to land is a fundamental asset affecting women’s role. Urban crop production has been Women lack access to land, and so do the “feminised”, as the men move out to other poor marginalized migrant young men. informal sectors like petty trading. It is Legal and policy frameworks are not fully common to find women as farmers and a promulgated for protection of urban Juliet Kiguli few migrant men as hired labourers on farmers and women especially. Irrespective Women continue to find means of small plots, scattered over the city and of some cultural inhibitors. survival strategies through farming. owned by women. Women could access land much easier than the young men due LAND AND GENDER to cultural considerations like pity for Most of the urban women connect land to AIDS/war disasters’ implications and trust shelter and agriculture, but men hold most from landlords, and friendly networking. of the land. Women in Uganda make up per day grow mostly diversified crops on Women tend to concentrate their 51% of the total population 24.7 million scattered plots in swampy areas. agricultural activities around the homes or people (UBOS 2002) and contribute more seek out garbage areas or undeveloped than 80% of food, provide 70% agricultural ACCESS TO LAND land, to farm close to each other. They labour, 97 % have access to land while only The majority of poor women who depend access land through various means such as 7% own land (Kiguli 1995). Men provide on land for their livelihood are either squatting, borrowing, and searching for only 30-40% labour. landless or have limited and insecure rights free unused pieces of land in the to land. In addition, they access land mostly neighbourhood, which they clear for Women, men and the children perform as customary land but lack decision- cultivation. Land inheritance, purchase and different roles within the household and in making rights on how the land should be receiving land as gifts from close kin urban agriculture. Some roles are defined utilised. Plots of land utilised for urban relations were the other forms of how according to biological sex while others are agriculture range from less than 0.2 acres in women access land. through socialisation. Factors like ethnicity, the city centre to 3 acres in periphery areas. customs and taboos determine the gender It was observed that most women access TENURE PATTERNS division of labour. The children assist the land through a male relation-father, In Kampala, about 60% of the land is held women in planting and weeding or husband, sons and brothers. Some women under mailo-land tenure system (see UAM tethering the animals. For some women own the land but these are rather small no. 11), while the remaining 40% is under are poor and cannot afford advanced areas. Access to land is a key factor affecting freehold and customary tenure. One technologies. The men usually focus on women’s emancipation. acquires land through purchase, which animal keeping but not growing vegetables requires huge financial resources. Poor and other food crops like the women. Women are more likely to have access to women do not own land but many have customary or mailoland, which they occupy as access to plots on mailo-land or public land. There are also differences among women. squatters. (Focus Group, Ndeeba Division - Most women access land for urban farming Some women have higher incomes and Kampala, 2003, unpublished) through their spouses, older women own reside in flats and planned residential areas patches through arrangements of although they carry out urban agriculture. These women, as squatters, have usufruct borrowing while middle aged and younger Middle income women mainly keep rights for food production and can be women rent, squat or purchase user rights. animals (poultry) on a grand scale in their evicted any time. Without this security of All a result of marriage, age,income, social backyards or on the balconies, whereas the tenure they are less concerned with relations and distance. poor women with earning of less than $1 sustainable environmental concerns such as land degradation and development of Access is a key factor determining the _________________ the land. practice of urban agriculture in Kampala Juliet Kiguli city. Most women are landless, and the Makerere University, Kampala - Uganda Urban women farmers reportedly majority of women interviewed that use ✉ [email protected] emphasised in interviews: land in Kampala, hold no control over it as Lillian . N. Kiguli Fellow women occupy the wetlands/swampy they are squatters or borrow the land. Organisational Development Consulting Limited, areas because land is cheap and readily Again others have access to land, but no Kampala - Uganda available- I think...the poor access marginal right in decision-making on how to utilise ✉ [email protected] lands, people with small means resort to the the land. The few women who own land informal areas for mainly agriculture and then through inheritance, cannot sell it, because 34 UA-Magazine the land belongs to the family and selling labourers to clear the wetland for growing decentralised and attention be paid to requires written documents. Marital status yams and sugarcane. female headed households and farms which greatly determines ownership and access to are increasingly involved in the urban cash land. The level of income and amount of Women have been economically economy savings determine access to land. Another empowered and increased their decision issue that affects the access and ownership making level at the household. The women Empower women with income generating of women is the limited education. have also saved money and gained access skills through trainings as part of capacity and ownership to land. Some are able to pay building so that they can make decisions in A married woman would use the land next school fees for their children, yet this has the household and on farming methods if to the house for farming but the husband been an outstanding male role. Those they have access to their own resources determines which type of crops to grow and Women farmers in the city must be realised how to utilise the output. One woman said: and allowed to participate in on-farm and I grow sugarcane and vegetables for sale, but Women continue to find adaptive research/demonstrations at my husband has restricted me to which types of means of survival district farm institutes that teach new crop crops to grow. He does not want sugarcane or strategies through technologies. banana trees farming. (Interview with middle aged married woman, Technologies must be gender sensitive to Ggaba Water Zone-Kampala). enable women to operate them. For belonging to the farming groups have example, light hand hoes requiring less The Land Act of 1998 (section 28) caters for gained access to new farmer technologies to energy designed specifically for women women in respect to land ownership, ensure food security for the families. while heavy ones are for the men. however enforcement is difficult as it is not locally interpreted. It is apparent that the CONSTRAINTS Women need access to land and so do the ordinary women do not understand the There are various types of conflicts and marginalised migrant young men who laws. These have not been translated into tensions encountered by urban farmers. practise urban agriculture. Policy support is the indigenous languages to facilitate the These range from land boundaries to necessary to redistribute the land. women fight for policy change and evictions by environmental NGOs (e.g., improvement of the law. NEMA), city council authorities and landowners. Poor policies and laws FARMER INITIATIVES deterring women from gaining access to Women continue to find means of survival land. However, co-spouse ownership is high strategies through farming. Non- on the parliamentary debate agenda. government organisations fighting for the Women also lack access to new rights of women to land are mushrooming technologies and information on agriculture (like the Uganda Land Alliance and e.g., improved machinery, fertilizers and UWONET). Women have formed seeds, and the predominant male extension associations to improve their involvement workers face cultural inhibitions in in urban agriculture and welfare in general. approaching female farmers. Finally, For instance, Ggaba Women’s Development reproductive and domestic roles such as Kiguli Juliet Association is a group of women led by a child-care interfere with the female labour Other women work as hired local council leader (also a woman) who and time contribution. labourers meet on a monthly basis and have neighbourhood support networks. They RECOMMENDATIONS NOTE collect membership fees and access loans Farmer participatory diagnostic research Urban farming started in kampala as a result of socio-economic and cultural features as studied by and use the rotating fund to buy agricultural should be carried out and include urban Dan Maxwell and Samuel Zziwa in 1992, later by inputs. They meet their household needs. women to identify gender needs and Gertrude Atukunda, Juliet Kiguli and Augustus Nuwagaba in 2001 who targeted the urban poor. Urban women create social networks to problems specific to kampala city dwellers. Two types of people farm, Traditional landlords and ameriolate the effects of urban poverty and This is to ensure that gender disaggregated migrants to the city in search of employment. in this way can become agents of change data is generated through research, and Almost 50% land in Kampala is under urban farming. (Ssewakiryanga, 2002).