2026 Elections: Ugandan farmers still digging the hard way

CITIZENS' MANIFESTO

Daphine Kibuuka’s daily farm schedule resembles that of an office worker. At 8:00am, she picks her hoe, walks to the garden and starts her chores, depending on the farming season. 

At the moment, she is ploughing in preparation for the next planting season. Her farmland in Timuna, Nakaseke district, measures four acres. “It takes me a month to effectively dig one acre,” she says. 

With four acres, she would be late for planting, unless she hires other people to assist her. She would need 10 able-bodied workers using hand hoes to clear the land in one month. 

“There is no tractor to hire nearby. If you hire one from Kapeeka [Nakaseke], about 10 miles away, it would cost sh130,000 per acre and only for ploughing. I cannot afford it,” Kibuuka says. 

She resorts to using a hoe. However, for commercial farmers, a hand hoe is a no-go area. 

“A hand hoe delays work on an acre by a month, compared to a tractor,” says Sebastian Ngambwa, the director of Prime Agro Farms Uganda Limited and a practising commercial farmer. 

He says he uses tractors to plough, plant and harvest maize silage from his 40- acre piece of land. 

“One major benefit is consistency — the cultivator ensures uniform depth and soil texture, which leads to even germination and better crop establishment,” Ngambwa says. 

He also highlights the importance of saving time. “A task that would take 10 people a week can be done in a day, using a tractor cultivator. This allows me to plant on time and beat unpredictable weather patterns,” Ngambwa says.

Citizens’ manifesto 

According to the Vision Group citizens’ manifesto survey, lack of farm tractors, unpredictable weather patterns, fake farm inputs, lack of access to markets, expensive fertilisers, lack of access to financing and the low level of value addition are some of the biggest challenges that farmers are facing. 

According to the survey, agriculture and poor or fake seeds was cited as one of the biggest challenges affecting agriculture in the country.

Farmers face significant climate challenges, especially drought and pests, but are seeing improvements through adaptation measures like irrigation and balanced rainfall. 

At the same time, they are diversifying how they market produce — shifting from traditional methods toward more direct and digital channels — indicating growing resilience and innovation in both climate-response and market engagement.

The survey was conducted between March and May, this year, across 58 districts in 17 sub-regions in the lead-up to the 2026 general election. 

It sought to assess voter perceptions on the key political, social and economic issues shaping the road to elections. 

It also sought to identify critical policy issues that citizens expect political parties and candidates to address. 

It covered 6,006 eligible voters (aged 18 and above) through a stratified random sampling method, ensuring demographic and regional balance. 

The survey highlights key challenges and opportunities, emphasising the need to address socio-economic priorities, strengthen democratic participation, combat corruption and adopt inclusive leadership and media engagement across all regions and demographics. 

The data highlights the most pressing issues affecting communities, with 15% of the respondents mentioning food security as one of the issues affecting them, especially farmers. 

Health emerged as the top concern, cited by 53% of the respondents, followed by education (35%), poverty and road network/transport (29%), indicating widespread socio-economic and infrastructure challenges and the need for improved public services and livelihoods. 

Other issues were employment (19%), water and sanitation (16%), national security (15%), energy access (13%), and land (8%). Although these were mentioned less frequently, they remain relevant to the community's well-being and development.

A tractorisation map of Uganda shows that tractors are more used in western and central regions, as well as areas of Sebei and the cattle corridors. 

Smallholder farmers dominate 

Agricultural production in Uganda is mainly dominated by smallholder farmers engaged in food and cash crops, horticulture, fishing and livestock farming. 

The 2024 Uganda Bureau of Statistics (UBOS) census report shows that most farmers in Uganda use rudimentary tools in farming. 

The UBOS survey says 95.8% of farmers use hoes as the main tool of production, and yet, these farmers, who are categorised under subsistence, deliver between 75–80% of the total agricultural output. 

A tractorisation map of Uganda shows that tractors are more used in western and central regions, as well as areas of Sebei and the cattle corridors. 

In terms of districts, grain farmers in Nwoya and Amuru, as well as within Bunyoro sub-region and south-west Buganda like Kiboga, Mubende, Mityana and Kassanda, use tractors. 

Karamoja, Lango and Teso sub-regions have the least number of tractor usage, which is also visible in the overall farm production. 

Although average crop yields in Uganda have been steadily increasing, they remain the lowest in the world. 

For instance, with cereal production of just under 800kg per hectare, Uganda and generally East Africa has the least cereal crops productivity per hectare than any other region in the world. 

In line with the increasing scarcity of land as a major productive resource in agriculture, increasing agricultural productivity faces a new challenge of ensuring that the increasingly-limited resource becomes more productive. This can only be achieved through tractorisation.

Experts believe that even if Ugandan farming had just basic tractorisation, food insecurity would be dealt with effectively. 

Numbers still low 

While several commercial farmers have bought tractors, the Government, through the agriculture ministry, has been the largest distributor of tractors to farmers. 

In March 2019, the largest single number of tractors (170) was handed over to farmers by President Yoweri Museveni at Namalere, Wakiso district. 

The number has since grown and a total of 650 tractors have been handed out to various farmers’ groups in the last six years. In June, the Government started procurement of over 500 more tractors, each at about sh120m. 

Maintenance challenges 

“The tractor is strong, but the arm lift is weak,” says Emmanuel Mutingi from Kyegegwa Fruit Farmers Association. Because of this ‘weak link’, they are always spending money on repairs. Mutingi says ploughs for tractors are not compatible with the hard soils. 

Tooro Dairy Co-operative Society Limited, which also received a tractor, is reporting the same problems. 

The tractors come with a two-year warranty from the supplier, plus service after 2,000 hours of operation. 

But some of them, especially those delivered between 2014 and 2017, have broken down and the beneficiaries have failed to repair them. 

Besides, since the two-year warranty given by the supplier ended, the beneficiaries are supposed to meet the repair costs. 

Med Mwiri from Engsol says this challenge is due to lack of trained personnel to operate tractors. He says his company trains operators. Under the arrangement, a farmers’ group is supposed to meet 20% of the purchase cost as a guarantee that they can be able to maintain the equipment.

However, some farmers who got the tractors through a State House arrangement did not pay anything. 

Agriculture minister Frank Tumwebaze says the Government has since set up maintenance centres.

Minister Frank Tumwebaze

Tractor size

Medium size tractors or two-wheel drive tractors are quite expensive. On average, each costs about sh120m. 

“They are not just expensive to buy, but also expensive to maintain. This is why I think smaller tractors, for example, those operated by the hand, are better for smallholder farmers,” says one of the managers at Wash and Wills Agro-machinery. 

The Government has, for instance, distributed 55 walking tractors, tricycles and an excavator to farmers from 40 parishes in six districts in Karamoja, to help them increase food production. 

Explaining the choice of machinery, Eng. Paul Ayela, a member of the technical team behind the procurement of the small-scale farmer-friendly machinery, says, by promoting the walking tractors, they wanted to pilot the use of machinery among smallholder farmers in Karamoja. 

“We wanted to pilot it in Karamoja, which is one of the marginalised sub-regions in terms of food production and technology. We want to start by giving them smaller machines before graduating to bigger ones,” Ayela says. 

In Teso and Karamoja, ox-ploughs are the leading farm machinery used in ploughing. 

“The ox-plough is the nearest I can afford because we do not have enough farm tractors,” Christine Omoding, a farmer in Olilim, Katakwi district, says. But even then, not every farmer can afford ox-ploughs. Omoding says a set of a good ox-plough costs sh1.2m. 

However, it costs a farmer between sh60,000 and sh80,000 to hire an ox-plough to work on an acre of land.

What experts say

Experts believe that even if Ugandan farming had just basic tractorisation, food insecurity would be dealt with effectively. 

“The production should have been higher if there was just enough basic tractorisation of the agriculture sector in Uganda,” Dr Antonio Querido, the outgoing Food and Agriculture Organisation country director, said. 

Agriculture minister Frank Tumwebaze says there are about 4,700 tractors in the country at the moment. 

“And out of these, only 25% are fully operational,” he says. To create basic tractorisation, experts believe, the country needs at least 15,000 tractors. “Given the available arable land, the country needs at least 15,000 tractors,” Med Mwiri from Engsol says. 

Experts say about 1% of farmers in Uganda use a farm tractor at some point in their farming activities. This is much lower compared to some other countries in Africa. 

For example, in Egypt, 57% of farmers use tractors, while South Africa is at 12%. In Europe, and most developed farming countries, farm tractor usage is at over 95%.

Experts say about 1% of farmers in Uganda use a farm tractor at some point in their farming activities. This is much lower compared to some other countries in Africa. 

Farmers speak out

Nicholas Matsiko, the owner of High Mark Dairy farm, in Kashari, Mbarara: We are now growing grass for the cows and it requires a lot of ploughing. We use a tractor to prepare the farm before grass and forage is planted.

One of the reasons my group has successfully used the tractor is because we put in resources beyond the donation. 

For example, when the tractor is coming to work on your farm, you pay sh3,000 per kilometre.

Then each farmer is charged sh100,000 per acre covered at the farm. 

Non-members are charged sh120,000 per acre, which means that members are subsidised at sh20,000 per acre. We make sure that all farmers pay this money so that our tractor is well serviced.

Isaac Malinga, a large-scale farmer in Kapchorwa district: The tractor solves more farm hurdles than meets the eye.

“Other than ploughing in preparation for planting, the tractor pumps water from sources away from the farm to the crops. It can also be used as farm transport.