This is a man’s world: Gendered perceptions of Ugandan agro-input dealers
- From
-
Published on
17.03.23
- Impact Area

by Anusha De, Caroline Miehe and Bjorn van Campenhout
OPEN ACCESS | CC-BY-4.0
Esther (a composite of typical experiences) is the proud owner-manager of a small shop in a trading center close to her home in a village in eastern Uganda. With a loan from a savings and credit organization and some help from her husband, she was able to rent a stall and buy sufficient stock to get her business going. She hopes to earn some extra money that can be used to send their children to school, as the income Esther and her husband get from farming is often insufficient and at times uncertain.
Esther has several friends with businesses in the same trading center. These women trade in second-hand clothes, have small restaurants, or sell beauty products like wigs and lipstick. Not Esther. She sells seeds of improved varieties, inorganic fertilizer, and pesticides to farmers. While the businesses of Esther’s friends thrive, Esther’s shop is not doing that well. Farmers seem to prefer the agro-input shop of John a few stalls down the road, even though it looks less well kept than Esther’s store and there are rumors that John sometimes tampers with the seed. This frustrates Esther and she is seriously thinking of converting her shop to a pharmacy.
Related news
-
AI Tool Makes "Invisible Enemy" Visible, Tackling Aflatoxin Risk in Africa's Maize
Sehlule Muzata09.10.25-
Climate adaptation & mitigation
-
Food security
An innovative early warning system powered by artificial intelligence is poised to transform how Afr…
Read more -
-
Advancing public private and people partnership (PPPP) for small scale mechanization in Tunisia: a milestone towards enhanced farm and landscape management.
Multifunctional Landscapes Science Program07.10.25-
Environmental health
-
Environmental health & biodiversity
-
Food security
The International Center for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas ICARDA and its national partners…
Read more -
-
Boosting investment in fertilizer and soil health in Liberia
Sehlule Muzata30.09.25-
Food security
-
Gender equality
Through partnership, the Fertilizer and Soil Health Hub for West Africa and the Sahel is…
Read more -