Abstract

Crop diseases significantly suppress plant yields and in extreme cases wipe out entire crop species threatening food security and eroding rural livelihoods. It is therefore critical to estimate the extent to which shocks like disease epidemics can affect food availability and the capacity of smallholder farmers to mitigate and reverse the effects of such shocks. This study utilizes sex-disaggregated data from 341 households in Uganda to analyze: first, gender and access to agricultural resources and their control; second, whether men and women in the targeted banana-farming communities share similar perceptions toward the effectiveness of the banana Xanthomonas wilt (BXW) control technologies and their respective information dissemination pathways; third, whether gender and farmer perceptions influence on farm adoption of BXW management practices. Lastly, it determines the impact of adoption of BXW control practices on food security. Results show that whereas most household assets are jointly owned, men have more individual ownership, control, and decision-making on income from household assets than women. Perceptions on effectiveness of BXW control practices and communication channels also differed between men and women. Men rated cutting down of infected plants to be more effective than women, but tissue culture, removal of male buds and disinfecting of farm tools were perceived to be equally effective by both men and women. In addition, apart from newspapers which were more effective in delivering BXW information to men, we found no differences in the effectiveness of other BXW information sources. More importantly, the study finds both gender and farmer perceptions on BXW control to significantly affect adoption of BXW control practices and household food security. For better and sustainable management of plant epidemics in Uganda, it is therefore critical that existing gender-based and underlying perception constraints are addressed. Key words: Gender-based constraints, food security, perceptions, technology adoption, Xanthomonas wilt.

Highlights

  • Crop pests and diseases are some of the major causes of global food production losses

  • We explore how the production objective and the relative importance of banana in the household diet affect the control of banana Xanthomonas wilt (BXW) and food security

  • The current study investigated the effects of gender on the adoption of BXW control practices

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Summary

Introduction

Crop pests and diseases are some of the major causes of global food production losses. In Africa, for example, the arrival and spread of banana Xanthomonas wilt (BXW) and the recent outbreak of the fall army worm (Spodoptera frugiperda) have caused significant yield losses, and in some instances have wiped out entire plantations, eroding livelihoods and rendering regions and countries’ food insecure (Karamura et al, 1998; Chakraborty and Newton, 2011; FAO, 2017). Reducing these losses offers a first line of defense against food and nutrition insecurity, especially in sub Saharan Africa where crop production systems are highly vulnerable to pests and diseases

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