Weather shocks, gender, and intrahousehold dynamics in Uganda

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Abstract

In recent decades, the frequency of climate change induced weather shocks in tropical countries has increased. This has been manifested, for example, by the reduction in amounts of rainfall received and the shortening of rainfall seasons which threaten the food security and welfare of millions of households. These shocks greatly affect the agricultural production and welfare of smallholder farmers who are dependent on natural rains. Therefore, understanding farm households’ responses to these shocks is crucial to aid the design of public climate change adaptation strategies. This thesis examines the effect of exposure to weather shocks on gender and intrahousehold dynamics in rural Uganda, a topic which is relatively under-explored in the literature on farmers’ adjustment to shocks. This existent deficit within literature is largely due to the fact that, until recently, detailed data on the characteristics (including the gender) of plot or parcel managers was not widely available. The thesis is based on three closely linked empirical chapters on the subject. The first empirical chapter (Chapter Two) examines the effect of droughts on farmers’ cropland share allocation to key crops, with a specific focus on gender. Counterintuitively, given the core message of much of the stylised literature which sees women as predominantly subsistence farmers, we find that exposure to extreme negative rainfall shocks induces women to allocate more land to commercialised food crops with the dual benefit of providing food and income. While the focus of the first empirical chapter is on the implications of ex-ante/potential shocks on crop choice adjustment, the second empirical chapter (Chapter Three) examines the effect of ex-post, postharvest crop loss shocks, on intrahousehold labour allocation across off-farm and on-farm activities between husbands and wives. While damage to food crops do not significantly affect labour reallocation, wives are found to increase their labour supply to off-farm jobs (particularly secondary off-farm employment and self-employment) in the event of losses to cash crops, which in a patriarchal society like Uganda is predominantly controlled by men. This result is consistent with our “added worker effect” hypothesis whereby the release of female labour from male plots and the need to substitute for lost income is among the most plausible mechanisms at work. The third empirical chapter (Chapter Four) examines the effects of exposure to negative rainfall shocks on children’s school attendance. We find that exposure to negative rainfall shock reduces children’s school attendance. These results are particularly strong for children in rural areas and also those attending primary schools. Interestingly, our results also show that the initial decline in children’s school attendance is almost cancelled following prolonged lag after exposure to negative rainfall shocks. Our findings provide useful insights for designing policies to aid in climate change adaptation of rural agricultural households.

Keyword(s)

Children̢۪s School Attendance; Cropland Share Allocation; Gender; Intrahousehold Dynamics; Labour Allocation; Weather Shocks

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