In recent years, farmers in eastern Uganda have had to endure dire conditions that have caused them to lose three to four harvesting seasons in a row. Severe drought in 2007 was followed by several periods of flooding. Large swaths of their land were deforested for political reasons and for providing cooking fuel to sustain the local population.

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The region’s most productive crops, which include cassava, millet, sorghum, and sunflower, are also very time-consuming to produce. Cassava alone requires almost an entire day to make it into the basis for a meal for one family. The work of peeling, crushing, drying and grinding cassava takes a heavy toll on women who