Rural Africans are finding work beyond their farms

To understand the changing economics of the African countryside, talk to Jovelence Kemizano. Her banana garden slopes into a bucolic valley in Bushenyi, western Uganda. It is too small to feed her family. So when planting time comes, she works for wages in another’s field, until she has earned enough to rent an extra plot of her own for the season ahead.

The forces of supply and demand are against her. Rents in her village are rising, because each year there are more people on the same amount of land. She cannot bargain for better pay, as there is always someone else willing to dig in her place. This season she has earned too little to rent.

The forces of supply and demand are against her. Rents in her village are rising, because each year there are more people on the same amount of land. She cannot bargain for better pay, as there is always someone else willing to dig in her place. This season she has earned too little to rent a plot. She will work as a casual labourer throughout, buying a kilo of maize flour with her daily wage.

cover photo: Bountiful, but not enough image: afp