Cultivating Cash: A Comparison of Labor Forces dominated by Farming in Uganda and South Sudan

South Sudan imported 537 million USD worth of goods in 2014. Over half consisted of food and food products, while a third of the goods were machinery and transportation products. In the same year, South Sudan’s exports totaled 4.03 billion USD. The country’s main export is crude petroleum, which accounts vastly for 99% of the load, and 60% of the GDP. South Sudan is the most oil-dependent country in the world. China is the chief consumer of the product, purchasing 98% of this natural resource. These figures make South Sudan’s global market incredibly vulnerable. The current conflict in the country is highly detrimental to the country’s economic productivity. In 2015, the country’s GDP dropped 5% because of the conflict. Conversely, the 2014 positive trade balance was a good sign to the nation’s wealth. The balance may be a huge factor in the (13%) rise of GDP per capita prior to the conflict. If the country can find peace it has hope for its GDP to rise. Unfortunately, this positive balance of is not found within the country. Only 10% of people in the country work in industry or commerce jobs, so the distribution of wealth is poor. For those working outside the oil sector, which is approximately 80% of the population, wages are low or unpaid. This large sector of informal agricultural work accounts for only 15% of the GDP. This is because the majority of this work is done by unpaid households that are living off of subsistence farming. The remaining work is governmental, and the unemployment rate is 12%.

Conversely in Uganda, imports outweighed exports. In 2014, Uganda exported $2.34B and imported $6.03B. Uganda’s prime exports are food and agricultural products. A large portion of imports include machines, transportation, mineral products and medicines. In Uganda, almost 79% of people in the labor force are self-employed while 86% employees who are hired with legal wages are temporary workers. Similar to South Sudan, most of the countries citizens are engaged in informal and unpaid work most notable in the agricultural sector. Approximately 82% of Ugandans work in agriculture. Many households only grow enough food to live off of. A meager 4% work in industry. Other in work Uganda includes 13% services, which makes up most shops, restaurants, and transportation services of markets in the country’s urbanized areas.

In both agricultural cultures, men perform the more vigorous tasks, while women perform the tedious tasks like seeding weeding and harvesting. Men take active responsibility for cash crops, caring far less for subsistence crops. Men are typically head of household in both countries. The results are far more labor hours spent on the crops by women. Women also have responsibility for all of the household chores including cooking and child rearing. These tasks take up the majority of the day but leave women with no economic power. Aside from gender inequality, both countries have a high rate of child labor. In Uganda the rate is 30%, and in South Sudan it is upwards of 45%. Most of the child labor is done in agriculture, but both countries face some of the worst cases of child labor including sexual exploitation. Most child labor is done out of economic necessity.

The main crops in South Sudan are sorghum, maize, rice, sunflower, cotton, sesame, cassava, beans, and peanuts. Small scale crops include coffee, tea, sugar, and tobacco. It is important to note that these crops are the only other significant source of export revenue, totaling only 3.8 million USD. In Uganda, food crops consist of plantains, cassava, sweet potatoes, millet, sorghum, corn, beans, and groundnuts. Major cash crops are coffee, cotton, tea, and tobacco. Due to climate change, crops are becoming more vulnerable due to various reasons. These include unpredictable temperature, rainfall and flooding, increased pests and diseases, and rain during the dry season needed to sun-dry many crops. Coffee is one of the larger concerns of the country, which is a fussy crop to grow. Sales have been reported to have dropped as much as 30% in some regions. School and medical costs of families pay the price. To consumers coffee is a drink, but to producers, who are mainly small family farms, it is life. In addition to financial insecurity, many families report being food insecure for several months due to the unreliable weather.

Questions moving forward:

1. What are the most profitable farming practices in Uganda?
2. What are best practices to ensure food security?
3. What are the most affordable start-up practices that could be used in newly settled refugee areas?
4. Do these differ from traditional farming methods?
5. What are the most vulnerable crops and methods of farming? Are there any solutions or technologies? Are they accessible and affordable? Simple or complex?
6. How can food become a nutritional and economic source for newly settled refugees? Are any food crops also cash crops?
7. What other ways are there, aside from farming, is there to create jobs and work for newly settled refugees so that they can be independent households once again?