By Mulengera Reporters
Crop farming accounts for 71% of the primary agricultural income sources among beneficiaries of the Bank of Uganda-managed Agricultural Credit Facility (ACF), highlighting the facility’s heavy concentration in one segment of Uganda’s agricultural economy.
An independent evaluation by the National Planning Authority (NPA) found that livestock accounted for 14% of the surveyed beneficiaries’ primary income sources, followed by poultry at 12%, while grain trade represented just 2%.
The findings, contained in the evaluation commissioned by the Ministry of Finance, Planning and Economic Development and released in May 2026, suggest that ACF financing is reaching crop farmers far more extensively than other agricultural enterprises.
The dominance of crop farming is also reflected in the facility’s product portfolio.
By September 2024, grain trade accounted for only 6% of approved ACF projects, according to the evaluation.
The NPA says the pattern broadly mirrors the structure of Uganda’s agricultural economy, where crop production remains a major economic activity. However, it warns that the heavy concentration of ACF support in crop farming could limit the facility’s impact across the wider agricultural sector.
Livestock and poultry, despite attracting substantially less financing, present opportunities for employment, nutrition security, income diversification and faster returns on investment, the evaluation says.
Their relatively low participation could indicate that the current ACF financing model is not sufficiently aligned with the financing needs and operating conditions of businesses in these subsectors.
The gap is even more pronounced in grain trade, where only 2% of surveyed beneficiaries identified the activity as their primary source of agricultural income.
The NPA says the low uptake could be linked to high entry barriers or product designs that do not adequately accommodate businesses involved in grain trading.
Grain traders, small and medium enterprises, cooperatives and rural aggregators may require financing structures that differ from those suited to crop production.
The evaluation therefore calls for the ACF to rebalance its subsectoral financing so that the facility reflects the diversity of Uganda’s agricultural economy.
For livestock and poultry enterprises, it recommends considering smaller loan sizes, shorter repayment periods and tailored risk instruments that better match the characteristics of these businesses.
For grain trade, the NPA recommends identifying the specific barriers limiting participation and redesigning ACF products to better serve SMEs, cooperatives and rural aggregators.
The proposed changes are intended to widen the range of agricultural activities benefiting from the facility rather than simply increasing the volume of financing going into crop farming.
The NPA argues that a more balanced allocation of ACF financing could help the facility contribute more broadly to food security, employment, income diversification and rural economic development.
The findings also place greater emphasis on the role of product design in determining who benefits from agricultural finance.
While crop farming currently dominates the ACF portfolio, the evaluation suggests that expanding financing to livestock, poultry and grain trade could enable the facility to support more diverse agricultural value chains.
For BoU and participating financial institutions, the challenge will be to maintain the strong financing pipeline for crop production while developing products that make it easier for enterprises in underrepresented agricultural subsectors to access ACF credit.
The NPA says such a shift would strengthen the facility’s contribution to the transformation of Uganda’s broader agricultural economy and the development objectives of Vision 2040. (For comments on this story, get back to us on 0705579994 [WhatsApp line], 0779411734 & 041 4674611 or email us at mulengeranews@gmail.com).
