The number of hungry people in Uganda has risen sharply in the last 15 years, the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) announced in a statement ahead of World Food Day today.
“The number of hungry increased from 12 million in 1992 to 17.7 million in 2007,” Percy Misika, the FAO representative in Uganda, said.
“We have witnessed calls for more food aid to people who where previously feeding themselves.”
Teso, Karamoja and Acholi regions have the highest number of hungry people, according to FAO.
“In Acholi sub-region, the number of extremely vulnerable individuals supported by the humanitarian community increased from 21,000 to 76,000,” the statement said.
“In Teso, the number has increased from 12,500 to 32,000, while in Karamoja the number increased from 650,000 to 800,000.”
Uganda is not the only country experiencing a decline in food security. Globally, the number of hungry has increased to over one billion.
Misika said this year’s World Food Day theme “Achieving food security in times of crisis” is an opportunity to reflect on the effects of the financial, food and climate change crises on food security in the world.
World Food Programme in a separate statement said there was no cause for celebrations. “World Food Day is actually No Food Day for almost one out of every six people around the world this year,” said WFP boss Josette Sheeran.
“Let’s remember that more than one billion people won’t get enough nutritious food to eat today.”
Misika said despite a general decline in food prices since August 2008, food prices were still higher than before the crisis. “Global cereal prices are still 63% higher than they were in 2005.”
The organisation attributed the food crisis in Uganda to a number of factors, including low agricultural productivity, low investment in agriculture and a high population growth rate.
Other factors are water availability and land tenure system, floods and droughts as a result of climate change, increased incidences of diseases in livestock and crops, high transport and reduced remittances from the diaspora.
FAO said due to low agricultural productivity, agricultural output had declined from 7.9% in 2000/2001 to 2.6% in 2008/2009.
Consequently, farm yields for most crops are below potential, and households produce food on an average of 2.5 acres instead of the recommended 4 acres for an average Ugandan family of seven people.
It said crop failures in the first season of 2009 were between 40% - 60%.
