The GADC-Story
Cotton Work is a film project that portrays the farmers of the Gulu Agricultural Development Company (GADC) and the cooperative itself in three short documentaries and places them in the context of the region’s eventful history. The farmers portrayed produce sesame seeds, chillies, sunflowers but above all cotton for the world market. And they do so largely unnoticed. Neither do consumers know who grows the cotton nor do the cotton farmers have a precise idea of what happens to their cotton. The beginning and end of the production chain are unknown to each other.
Moreover, the project also tells a story of courage and new beginnings. In recent years, GADC has made a significant contribution to the Gulu region regaining stability after years of civil war. Thus, the Cotton Work project tells a story that stands in contrast to the common negative stereotypes of cotton farming.
SHORT DOCU – PART 1
The Cooperative
The first part of the documentary introduces the Gulu Agricultural Development Company (GADC). It was founded after the end of almost 20 years of war in northern Uganda. At the centre of the cooperative is an old cotton ginnery that was badly damaged by the war and has been repaired with the aim of cleaning and ginning cotton and then selling it in bales.
We meet Acaye Christopher and Ato Evaline, who grow cotton, sesame and chillies for the international market as well as other crops for their own consumption on their small farms. They tell us about their daily work, how working with GADC has changed their lives in recent years and their vague ideas about what will happen to their cotton after it is sold.
Charles Oboth, Operations Manager of the Gulu Agricultural Development Company, talks about the challenges GADC has had to overcome, how it now works and how a system of training programmes for small and micro farmers has been established. GADC now has 400 employees, permanent and seasonal workers, and works with around 120,000 small and micro farmers.
SHORT DOCU – PART 2
Cotton Production – Planting
In the second part, we accompany Acaye Christopher and Ato Evaline as they sow the cotton. They show us the origin and first step of every cotton production. But they also talk about their fear that climate change and the resulting changes in rainfall could destroy their cotton cultivation. They are already beginning to feel the effects of climate change: the time of sowing has to be adapted to the unpredictable rainfall. The weather is changing and the harvest must be brought in before the onset of the rainy season. At the end of the year, we will see if everything went well.