By Nuwagaba Arthur
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 UGX 1.5 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 UGX 1,500 in the village, yet UGX 4,000–5,000 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 UGX 14,000 per kilogram in April to UGX 8,000 by July. Kiboko dropped from UGX 6,000 to UGX 2,000, and in West Nile, prices plunged from UGX 17,000 in February to UGX 9,000 by July. Many scrambled across the border into DRC for better rates. Though prices have since rebounded to UGX 13,000–14,000 for Robusta FAQ and UGX 13,500–14,000 for Arabica, the lesson is clear: volatility rules. Farmers’ incomes rise and collapse with global shocks they cannot control. Without government price stabilization, gains will remain fragile.
The crisis extends further. When Kenya blocked Uganda’s milk exports, local prices collapsed to UGX 300 a litre. Even today, milk rarely fetches more than UGX 1,000 in villages, while in Kampala the same litre sells for UGX 2,500. Processed milk goes for UGX 3,600–4,000, and a 500-gram packet of yoghurt costs UGX 2,500. In Busoga, sugarcane farmers have been crippled: millers now pay between UGX 175,000 and UGX 215,000 per tonne, down from UGX 240,000 two years ago. In some months, prices fell to as low as UGX 90,000. 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. Localized 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 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. (For comments on this story, get back to us on 0705579994 [WhatsApp line], 0779411734 & 041 4674611 or email us at mulengeranews@gmail.com).
