Today was a packed day in the rural village called Kikandwa. We got a tour around a small-scale farm that uses the technique of intercropping to produce plantains, coffee beans, cocoa, pumpkins (what we call squash), maize, and other crops. We also got to see where they process their cocoa beans and how they do it, which was super interesting! Ours hosts then took us to one of their houses for a delicious traditional Ugandan meal of matooke (mashed plantains) with g-nut sauce (ground nut sauce- amazing!), rice, beef, cabbage, greens, and fresh pineapple and watermelon. It was so cool to see how the farmers in Uganda work and how different it is from the large-scale farming in the US. Here the focus is on providing food first for their own family and the surplus can then be sold, whereas in the US, all product is for selling. This idea, combined with the method of intercropping, make for a very sustainable farm. The only thing, to me, that seemed not very sustainable about the farm was that labor prices are so low, so people in the area are hired for very low wages to help harvest the crops, which is good for the farmer, but not great for the surrounding community and isn't very sustainable for the economy. Overall, it was a great day full of beautiful scenery, great Ugandan people, amazing food, and lots of learning and thought-provoking ideas about Ugandan agriculture.
Questions for Drake/MUBS students:
How could Uganda raise the minimum wage for harvesters without making the farmers go bankrupt? Do you think large-scale farming could help Uganda or hurt it? In what ways would it help/hurt?
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I would imagine that economic and tradition balance are difficult to maintain. Thanks for sharing
ReplyDeleteI agree with what you are saying. The food, experience, and hospitality was beyond what I expected and wish that we had the opportunity to go back. Another thing that I noticed that was not very sustainable was the economic impact that selling their crops had on the families. Since the people in the village are mainly harvesting to feed their family, they are not able to sell a majority of crops for a profit which will still leave the families in poverty.
ReplyDeleteIt was a great day filled with new experiences and learning opportunities! Thank you for sharing your thoughts. As I think about sustainable development for the rural farms, I think that they are sustainable for the individual farmer but not for the community as a whole. I think that if you raised the wage for the harvesters, the entire harvesting system would change. Right now it is cheaper for the farmers to hire workers than to use a tractor. If the wage for the harvesters went up too high, it would be cheaper for the farmer to buy and upkeep a tractor. In turn, this would probably produce a catalyst effect for larger scale farming. Larger scale farming will most likely have negative environmental effect, as we have seen in the United States, but a positive economic effect. It is a hard decision to make whether large scale farming would be more beneficial because it has its advantages and pitfalls. Although after talking to the MUBS students, it seems that the country is trying to move towards implementing larger scale farming.
ReplyDeleteGreat post Ben, I totally agree with everything that you said! I think that the problem is not about minimum wage harvester’s wages because using the idea of the free market, the system will equalize itself out to be the most efficient for the given jobs and opportunities that exist for work. I do not think that small scale farming is sustainable because it keeps the market as a majority of small farm owners that cannot produce enough to compete nationally let alone internationally. If Uganda wants to truly become more of an economic power and become stronger economically and eventually in a more socially sustainable way, they need more large scale farming. Once the extra work force leaves and specializes or goes to get more educated, you can create more jobs and allow for more Ugandan’s to do more specialized and higher paying jobs to move forward as a country. Once they can accomplish this then they are not worrying about food but more advanced things for the advancement of the country.
ReplyDeleteHi, thanks for a great post! This day was a really great, hot day. I think, in response to large scale agriculture, that in some ways it is beneficial and in other ways it is not. I think that it helps to feed the country, but it also diminishes small scale farmers and wipes them away. I think that having a lot of small scale farms may be better as it is directly beneficial to more families and provides them with autonomy over their lives and livelihoods, while also providing diversity in the agricultural economy.
ReplyDeleteGreat post Ben! I found the rural farms to be absolutely amazing and it completely blew my mind how they are able to maintain these vast and diverse farms by hand. When it comes to moving to large-scale farming, I am worried that Uganda would end up risking more than it could benefit. Currently their system of multi-cropping is very innovative because their crops are set up in such a way that they are more resistant to disease, and the variety of seeds leads to the ground being very fertile. If they were to move to monocropping for large scale production, I fear that they would experience a lot more crop disease issues, and would most likely have to begin using chemical fertilizers which would only complicate their already troubled water situation. Although the farms do not currently bring in a lot of profit, I think that the small-scale system works to provide families food security, and I believe that it is in the best interest of Uganda to continue with these diverse plots rather than moving to large-scale monocropping.
ReplyDeleteVery insightful post, Ben! The question that you pose about minimum wage is very interesting. I think the government would have a hard time enforcing any sort of minimum wage in rural areas, as each farm seems to operate fairly independently. When it comes to large-scale farming, I think that there is a need to migrate towards larger-scale operations, but not as big as commercial operations in the US. My reasoning behind this train of thought is because we have identified the need for heightened food security in Uganda, it is the rural farms that have the most capacity and available land to produce large amounts of food. This in turn could lead to construction of better infrastructure for the sale of goods between rural and urban areas as well as the creation of more harvester jobs. By pumping more food products into the economy, farmers will be able to lower the price of goods and families will be able to afford more food. While it won't solve the problem of poverty leading to food insecurity in urban areas, it would certainly be a step in the right direction.
ReplyDelete