Agricultural research, extension pivotal in food systems transformation

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OPINION

By Solomon Kalema Musisi

On October 16, Uganda joined the rest of the world in celebrating World Food Day with the climax of this year’s events hosted by the Rwebitaba Zonal Agricultural Research and Development Institute in Rwengaaju, Kabarole District.

At the institute, an array of exhibition stalls showcased synergies inspired by the theme, “Hand in hand for better food and a better future.”

Unique to this year’s events is that they coincided with the 80^th birthday of the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations (FAO) and came in the same year as the organisation’s report entitled, “Tracking progress on food and agriculture-related SDG indicators 2025.”

The report places a spotlight on key indicators, showing an increase in the number of animal genetic resources secured in conservation facilities and the use of international instruments for combating illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing.

While UN member countries have scored in these, among other targets, the report calls for more efforts in the fight against global food insecurity that is affecting an estimated 2.3 billion people, a figure that represents about 28 percent of the global population.

This push for reinforcement was reflected in the keynote remarks that were delivered by Agriculture Minister Frank Tumwebaze in Kabarole.

Tumwebaze described agricultural research as the bedrock for food systems in Uganda, stating that it provides the much-needed crop varieties and animal breeds to help farmers achieve higher production and productivity at the farm level.

In a country with a population that has grown to over 50 million people with a fixed land area, these products should help achieve that with ease.

The opportunity, as presented in the same remarks, lies in leveraging agricultural extension systems which have proved effective in channelling technologies and advisory to farmers.

Today, Uganda stands out among countries that have relied on advisory services, training and regulation to achieve exemplary progress with the Coffee value chain. This is evidenced by the August Market Analysis report from the Agriculture Ministry’s Department of Coffee Development showing record growth in exports to 7.93 million 60-kg bags valued at $2.24 billion over the 12 months between August 2024 and August 2025, which is a 58.7% leap in the value of Coffee compared to the previous year.

More recently, Uganda’s progress in extension and related approaches for technology transfer was also recognised by the FAO through a global leader award that was announced by FAO Director-General Qu Dongyu at the World Food Forum in Rome, Italy, on Wednesday.

The award, which was received by the Agriculture Ministry’s Permanent Secretary, Maj. Gen. (Rtd) David Kasura-Kyomukama singles out Uganda’s FAO-China-Uganda South-South Cooperation Project as exemplary among project countries.

A preamble to the award points to the impactful transfer of technologies between China and Uganda for value chains under cereals, livestock, horticulture and aquaculture for over 30,000 farmers since 2012, where 15,000 have been reached in the third phase that was launched in January of 2023.

The tale of improvement in extension services continues as a highlight in the country’s fourth national development plan, NDPIV, which shows an increase in the proportion of households with access to agricultural extension services from 11.7% in the financial year 2017/18 to 49% in the 2021/22.

With the progress made so far, Uganda still remains with work to be done in increasing that number beyond the 49% to ensure that more farming households benefit from the tested impact of extension services. This could be one of the silver bullets in Uganda’s journey toward the nation’s Vision 2040 status of a modern, competitive, upper-middle-income country.

The writer is agricultural knowledge management specialist