Hunger walk, Uganda © Mbabazi Morgan

With much of the country covered in lush and fertile terrain, Uganda is not normally linked with food insecurity. Yet there is a contradiction between President Museveni’s talk of food surpluses and the reality that the average calorie intake of 68% of the population falls below the recommended minimum level, and that this proportion is increasing rather than falling. The main cause of declining productivity and inefficient food distribution is the low level of government investment in agriculture, which at 4.7% of national budget is below the Maputo Declaration commitment of 10% and which fails to recognise that 87% of the population lives in rural areas.

Reassurances about food surplus and exports overlook other painful realities. There is severe insecurity in the northern provinces where food production meets barely 50% of the needs of 2.3 million people. The semi-arid northeastern province of Karamoja has lost its 2008 harvest to drought and much of its livestock to disease. Acute malnutrition in children exceeds the official emergency level of 15% and almost the entire population of about 1 million depends on food aid.

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