Harvesting poverty: Uganda’s farming paradox

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OPINION

By Arthur Nuwagaba

Last month, my nephew Nicholas called me, brimming with excitement. The son of a soldier who served this country for twenty years before passing in 2019, Nicholas had just gained university admission. Tuition was sh1.5 million. He planned to raise half by selling his two sacks of beans, and asked if I could cover the rest. I agreed.

A week later, he messaged to say he might postpone. The market had betrayed him: a kilogram of beans fetched only sh1,500 in the village, yet sh4,000 – sh5,000 in Kampala. Even selling his entire harvest, he could not raise half of the tuition. Nicholas’s story is not unique. It reflects the plight of countless Ugandan farmers whose toil feeds the nation but never secures their own future.

This is Uganda’s agricultural paradox: fertile soils and abundant harvests, yet producers live in precarity. Policies meant to guide farmers toward prosperity often trap them in cycles of disappointment.

Crop transitions frequently end in heartbreak. Farmers once chased vanilla and ginger, investing heavily, only to be left stranded when markets collapsed. In Bushenyi, tea growers, exhausted by low prices, threatened to cut down plantations. The President met them and urged a switch to coffee. For a time, coffee seemed safe. Promoted by the government and Buganda Kingdom under the slogan “Emwanyi telimba” (coffee does not lie), its price rose steadily. But the last months have shaken even coffee farmers.

Robusta FAQ fell from sh14,000 per kilogram in April to sh8,000 by July. Kiboko dropped from sh6,000 to sh2,000, and in West Nile, prices plunged from sh17,000 in February to sh9,000 by July. Many scrambled across the border into the DRC for better rates. Though prices have since rebounded to sh13,000 – sh14,000 for Robusta FAQ and sh13,500 – sh14,000 for Arabica, the lesson is clear: volatility rules. Farmers’ incomes rise and collapse with global shocks they cannot control. Without government price stabilisation, gains will remain fragile.

The crisis extends further. When Kenya blocked Uganda’s milk exports, local prices collapsed to sh300 a litre. Even today, milk rarely fetches more than sh1,000 in villages, while in Kampala the same litre sells for sh2,500. Processed milk goes for sh3,600 – sh4,000, and a 500-gram packet of yoghurt costs sh2,500.

In Busoga, sugarcane farmers have been crippled: millers now pay between sh175,000 and sh215,000 per tonne, down from sh240,000 two years ago. In some months, prices fell to as low as sh90,000. Maize growers in Kamwenge face similar despair, with farm-gate prices too low to justify planting while urban markets charge several times more. Agriculture employs 70% of Ugandans yet contributes less than a quarter of GDP- a gap that signals systemic exploitation.

This cycle is not destiny. It is policy neglect. Solutions exist. Localised processing and branding can capture value at the source, empowering farmers and improving market access. Platforms like Agro Supply have shown promise: farmers save gradually, purchase quality inputs, receive training, and sell directly to buyers such as schools and hospitals, bypassing middlemen. If the government adopted and scaled such models, alongside cooperative-managed storage, better rural roads, and investment in cold storage and grain-drying, farmers could retain more value.

Nicholas’s struggle was not bad luck. It was the harvest of indifference, a product of systems that fail those who put food on our tables. Unless Uganda builds resilient value chains, invests in processing, and ensures farmers earn dignified returns, the nation will continue to grow plenty yet reap poverty. The land is generous. The question is whether our policies will finally allow farmers like Nicholas to taste their bounty.

The writer is a PhD Candidate in Business Administration
arthurmirama@gmail.com