How Uganda can fight rising hunger levels
A bodaboda rider transporting bunches of matooke at Ruti Market in Mbarara City. PHOTO/CHRISTOPHER BENDANA
What you need to know:
- A quick check through the markets in downtown Kampala City reveals that Uganda is importing food from countries in the region, Ukraine, and Saudi Arabia. Meanwhile, a recently ended prolonged dry spell saw hunger rise. According to a UN Food report, conflict, climate change, and economic shocks are the primary causes. To mitigate the challenge, experts call on the government to work on the crop production value chain from the farm to post-harvest handling, as Christopher Bendana writes.
Collins Asiimwe, a barber in Kyaliwajala, Kira Municipality in Wakiso district, believes he is one of the 295 million people facing acute food insecurity globally, as per the 2025 Global Report on Food Crises (GRFC) released in May. The report, prepared by the Food Security Information Network, is based on data from 65 countries, of which 53 faced acute food insecurity. These countries, primarily from sub-Saharan Africa, requested external food assistance in 2024.
Asiimwe’s daily diet includes a cup of dry tea and four pieces of fried cassava in the morning. Lunch is kikomando, a meal of chapatti and beans. That is all for the day - some carbohydrates, proteins, and no fat. It costs Shs2,000.
Previously, Asiimwe had mashed bananas, millet bread, and beef sauce for Shs5,000. However, due to a change in his fortunes after he lost his job, he had to scale down his meals. He has lost weight and is emaciated.
In Rugongo Village, Karungu sub-county in Buhweju district, 80-year-old Gideon Nyondo talks of a changing food system from the one in the 1990s which had two staples: millet and matooke. Today, the only staple is matooke because of the plant’s resilience to drought.
Compounding the situation is the loss of soil fertility and the lack of access to land for cultivation. Nyondo has had to lease land in Kinyarwanda, in Kazo district to grow millet. He shares the proceeds with the landlord.
“The transport fare from Buhweju to Kano is Shs 20,000, but I have to spend it because I do not like having only one choice of food to eat. Sometimes, we sell 10 bunches of matooke (bananas) to buy 10 kilograms of posho (maize flour). We learned to eat posho after a prolonged dry season,” he says.
The 2025 GRFC describes acute food insecurity as a situation where one, some, or all dimensions of food security including food availability, access, utilisation, and stability are disrupted either by shock or other factors. The main causes were conflict and climate change.
Conflict and insecurity remained the main driver in 20 countries leading to 139.8 million people facing high levels of acute food insecurity. The most affected countries were Nigeria, Sudan, and Myanmar. On the other hand, the changing weather extremes caused over 96.1 million people to face high levels of acute food insecurity.
Close to half of the farmers reported a worse-than-usual crop harvest with insufficient irrigation at 31 percent just below access to fertilisers at 33 percent. Plant diseases and pest outbreaks that are related to changing weather patterns were at 22 percent and 21 percent, respectively.
The report found that economic shocks led to over 59.4 million people facing high levels of acute food insecurity in 15 countries.
Those most affected had limited ownership of land, livestock, and agricultural equipment. Without access to basic services such as safe water, sanitation, and electricity, agricultural households are unable to maintain their livelihoods in the face of shocks and face an increasing risk of diseases, with consequent impacts on food security.
António Guterres, Secretary-General of the United Nations, wrote in the forward of the report, expressing concern that hunger and malnutrition are spreading faster than our ability to respond, yet globally, a third of all food produced is lost or wasted.
“Long-standing crises are now being compounded by another, more recent one: the dramatic reduction in lifesaving humanitarian funding to respond to these needs. This is more than a failure of systems,” he wrote.
Guterres added that hunger in the 21st century was indefensible, a failure of humanity.
"We cannot respond to empty stomachs with empty hands and turned backs. Governments, businesses, and decision-makers must heed the clear warnings issued in this report. We must summon the funding, innovations, and global solidarity to build the food-secure and climate-resilient future that every person, everywhere, needs and deserves,” he added.
The GRFC also included statistics on nutrition finding a link between food crises and malnutrition. Of the 53 countries with food crises, 26 also had a nutrition crisis, and another four had a nutrition concern.
A combine harvester at a farm in Northern Uganda. PHOTO/CHRISTOPHER BENDANA
Uganda’s situation
Uganda's score in the four core components is: 36.9 percent of the population is undernourished, 25.4 percent of children under five are stunted, 3.6 percent of children under five are wasted, and 4.1 percent of children die before their fifth birthday.
The study focused on the Karamoja subregion with Kaabong and Amudat districts classified as critical. Paul Onyait, the head of Programme Development and Quality at Action Against Hunger, says people must change the way they grow crops because the food system is altering.
“We have been farming on the same piece of land for a long time. Some nutrients have been depleted. Because land is a finite resource, there is a need to invest in increasing its productivity. This involves training farmers on what seeds to use, how to space the plants, and how to test the soil so that the right fertiliser is applied,” he explains.
Onyait adds that farmers should embrace climate-smart agriculture to cope with the challenges of climate change.
Climate-smart agriculture has gained traction in recent years due to an increase in prolonged droughts in many parts of the country. It includes limited tillage of land, planting of cover crops, mulching, and the use of irrigation.
“Good farming can only happen with the right knowledge. It cannot be addressed through only agriculture. It is a multi-sectoral food system approach,” Onyait argues.
Dr Victoria Ssekitoleko, a former Minister of Agriculture and a former regional director for the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), says Uganda’s different regions should be supported with the crops and animals they have historically farmed.
“When you go to the Karamoja subregion, it is livestock farming. The government should select talented youths and train them in the best practices in animal husbandry. Let them do what they love. The government should meet the farmers halfway,” she advises.
Ssekitoleko adds that the same method should be applied in the Kigezi subregion which is known for potatoe and sorghum growing.
On food security, the former minister, argues that the country should take a leaf from the People’s Republic of China, where each province has specific targets for a crop they specialise in.
“The government buys the excess produce and stores it. That is why China has the largest food reserves in the world. In our case, the government or the private sector can take up this method,” she adds.
Farmers should also actively engage in the agricultural value chain so that they can reap the greatest benefit from the sale of farm products.
“This can be achieved through cooperatives, which would also be tasked with giving farmers information on best agronomic practices and market availability. This way, the youth who are planning to move to the cities will remain in the rural areas to grow food,” Dr Ssekitoleko says.
Bosco Chemayek, a wheat breeder, at Buginyanya Zonal Agricultural and Development Institute. PHOTO/ CHRISTOPHER BENDANA
Adopting the Maputo
Declaration Ronald Twongyirwe, a researcher in food systems and a lecturer at Mbarara University of Science and Technology, urges the government to intervene since food and nutritional support from donors to the refugee communities is dwindling.
“Currently, the government allocates about three percent of its gross domestic product (GDP) to the agriculture sector. This goes against the Maputo Declaration. The government resources are nowhere to be found. Food security requires government intervention,” he argues.
The Maputo Declaration on Agriculture and Food Security, adopted in 2003, commits African Union member states to allocate at least ten percent of national budgets to agriculture and rural development. “When we improve productivity, food prices will go down and the poor will have access to food,” Twongyirwe adds.
John Lodungokol, the assistant commissioner in charge of Crop Production in the Ministry of Agriculture, Animal Industry, and Fisheries, agrees with Twongyirwe. He says food security in hard-hit areas like the Karamoja subregion cannot be delegated to non-governmental organisations (NGOs) like Action Against Hunger.
“Food insecurity is the mandate of the government. NGOs can only reach a limited number of beneficiaries. The agricultural challenges in Karamoja are compounded by the limited access to large tracts of land occupied by the government and unreliable rainfall. Farming has to move away from the communal manyatas,” he advises.
The other challenges the region faces are counterfeit farm inputs and limited access to extension services. “Although the government had recently recruited extension workers with better pay, we do not have the fuel to facilitate their transportation across the region is a challenge,” Lodungokol reveals.
Apart from the resurrection of the extension services programme, other government social and agricultural development programmes like Entandikwa, the Plan for Modernisation of Agriculture (PMA), and the National Agricultural Advisory Services (NAADS) have had limited impact in transforming agriculture and livelihoods.
“The government can pick a leaf from Israel where there are several dams in a region and water for production is available throughout the year. There is a dam in every village,” Lodungokol says.
However, calling on the government to raise funds for the construction of such dams is a tall order, given competing priorities such as managing infectious diseases, debt repayment, and purchasing political support.
A worker processing grass into hay at Bwogi Habasa farm in Rwentobo, Ntungamo District. PHOTO/ CHRISTOPHER BENDANA
The way forward
The GRFC report indicates out that people in protracted food crises require long-term development assistance to strengthen the resilience of their food systems. It recommends that functional food systems should allow the transfer of food from areas with a production surplus to areas in need.
The International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) recommends building conflict-resilient supply chains, adopting climate-smart strategies, and implementing targeted, holistic policy reforms integrating cross-sector efforts.
It further highlights the importance of improving access to finance and credit for smallholder farmers, processors, and pastoralists to drive broader economic recovery. The bottom line is that with the country’s increasing population, food security can only be strengthened through land intensification.
A country of over 45 million people cannot farm in the same way it did 40 years ago. The soil has lost its fertility and the weather patterns have changed. The good news is that we can easily leap-frog and use the latest agronomic practices and technology such as precision agriculture.
“We need to be careful with land intensification. We should not compromise our environment. Top food producers like the Netherlands are now developing artificial pollinators which we have taken for granted. We need to protect our pollinators (bees) by adopting new technologies,” Twongyirwe warns.
Dr Ssekitoleke also cautions the government not to give away land to refugees yet people in the host communities do not have enough land for agriculture. With proper planning, a country that has five freshwater lakes, two rainy seasons, and skilled manpower at the National Agricultural Research Organisation (NARO) cannot fail to feed itself.
Training: We have been farming on the same piece of land for a long time. Some nutrients have been depleted. Because land is a finite resource, there is a need to invest in increasing its productivity. This involves training farmers on what seeds to use, how to space the plants, and how to test the soil so that the right fertiliser is applied,” Paul Onyait, Head of Programme Development and Quality at Action Against Hunger
Produced by Nation Media Group in partnership with the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation
General Manager Editorial Daniel Kalinaki Acting Managing Editor Allan Chekwech
Editor, Sustainability Hub Gillian Nantume, Features Editor Caesar Karuhanga Abangirah, Contributor Christopher Bendana
