Uganda lags behind hunger reduction targets - FAO

 

Speaking during the Food and Agriculture Festival held yesterday at the National Theatre, Alhaji Jallow, a Representative of FOA in Uganda said the country is unlikely to achieve the Millennium Development Goal (MDG) hunger target of cutting the prevalence of undernourishment from 26% now to 13.5% by 2015.

 

Jallow said although the dietary energy supply which includes domestic food production and imported food remains on average adequate to meet the energy requirements of the population, close to 26% remain undernourished during the period of 2013-2014.

 

“Despite global progress the developing world including Uganda is not on track to achieve the World Food Summit target of halving the number of undernourished people by next year” says Jallow

 

Jallow attributed this to food access and distribution constraints and the growth in food production failing to keep up with the annual population growth rate of 3.2% (which is amongst the highest in the world).

 

He argues that hunger reduction requires sustained political commitment at the highest level.

 

“It entails placing food security and nutrition at the top of the political agenda and creating an enabling environment for improving food security and nutrition through adequate public and private investment” says Jallow.

 

The Food and Agriculture Festival was held in commemoration of World Food Day which will be celebrated on October 16, 2014 at the National Agriculture Research Organisation in Namulonge.

 

 The global theme “feeding the world, caring for the earth” will focus on the significant role of family and small holder farmers, providing food security, nutrition, improving lively hoods, managing natural resources, protecting the environment and contributing to sustainable development especially in rural areas.

 

In Uganda where agriculture contributes 23% of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and is a source of food and employment for about 80% of the population, the majority of these are family farmers who operate in almost four million households in the country.

 

According to Hellen Dropia a Project Officer at Action Africa Help a regional non-governmental organization which focuses on agriculture, many farmers are still facing serious challenges relating to climate change and fluctuating markets.

 

“In recent periods the price of corn has gone down, farmers sell a kilogram of maize corn for sh300, but they buy back a kilogram of maize flour at sh2000, clearly the markets do not favor the farmer.”Dropia said.

 

She added that in order to reach hunger reduction targets, policy would have to address protecting farmers by making market information available and stopping exploitation by middle men.