BY D KASULE: Innovation that reaches farmers is the surest guarantee of food security, the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and Agriculture Minister Frank Tumwebaze affirmed at the national World Food Day commemoration. The event was held at the Mbarara Zonal Agricultural Research and Development Institute (MBAZARDI), which marked 100 years since it began as a stock farm in 1926.
The commemoration, werr held under the theme “Innovate today, Nourish Tomorrow,” and came in at a time where there is very little adoption of innovative technologies in Uganda’s agricultural sector, as well as El Niño threats to harvests and the shrinking humanitarian funding.
Martin Ameu, FAO’s assistant representative for programmes, read remarks for FAO Representative Ezana Kassa, said innovation matters only when it reaches farmers, processors and consumers, and must move from research institutions and demonstration plots into farmers’ fields.
“Access must be part of how we define innovation,” he said. “Solutions must be affordable, practical and suited to the conditions farmers work in.”
He argued innovators to solve how farmers can earn more while protecting soil and water, how losses between farm and market can be cut, and how agriculture can offer opportunities to young people and vulnerable women.
He adds that innovation should reduce food loss, improve food safety, help farmers use water efficiently, restore soils and pastures, and provide timely weather information, early animal disease detection and better market data. Its work, it said, is guided by four “betters”: production, nutrition, environment and life.
Frank Tumwebaze, the minister of agriculture, affirmed aid the commemoration will continue every 16 October as a platform where science meets farmers. He suggested districts hold exhibitions before or after it to showcase the value chain “from the seed to the final product.”
He also appealed to research institutions to use the day to “deliver” their work. This year that meant three new purple-fleshed sweet potato varieties, which he said are rich in antioxidants that may reduce cancer risk. He urged NARO to keep improving nutrition through new varieties, develop caffeine-free specialty teas such as chamomile and peppermint, and expand the Kachwekano institute’s potato work.
He called for applied research, saying the country needs work that serves “livelihood value, not just academic value.” He adds that technology can improve production but nothing will replace food.
He urged a balance among four types of farming: food security crops such as cassava, potatoes, millet and bananas; income crops such as coffee and cocoa; animal feed; and environmental security.
The minister noted that Uganda has about 40 million acres of arable land, of which he said less than 2 million is in production, and asked extension workers to mobilize farmers to plant.
Tumwebaze, revealed that the President has directed government to plan large-scale use of water sources for irrigation, with the Ministries of Agriculture and Water working together. Interventions will cover five areas, including helping farmers with dams integrate irrigation and harvesting water from streams and rivers. Existing schemes will be profiled, with problem ones rehabilitated and others expanded.
“Irrigation has covered less than 2 percent of farmland,” he said. “Because predictable rains once made it a lower priority. Now the changing rainfall patterns require science and precision farming.”
NARO Deputy Director General Dr. Salim Kassim said the institute was upgraded last year to a national center of excellence for semi-intensive dairy farming. Good males and heifers from its herd will go to communities for breeding, alongside Big Ear goats and improved pastures.
The institute produces foundation seed multiplied with communities and seed companies, and a two-acre coffee mother garden supplies nursery operators in the region. Kassim said a potato seed hub is being built in Kabale, tea research at Rwebitaba has been upgraded, and wheat breeding for import substitution is under way at Buginyanya. He praised the minister’s work with the research team, including at Cabinet.
On behalf of the WFP Country Director, Emmanuel Rutasiba, warned that El Niño, projected for October to December, threatens gains against hunger. “In Karamoja, an assessment found about two-thirds of households food insecure, with food prices 50 to 100 percent above a year earlier.”
He underscored that WFP assistance to refugees has fallen from 1.6 million people to 784,000 as funding fell short. He highlighted anticipatory cash delivered in May before the worst of the season, and a June top-up of the Senior Citizens Grant for over 10,300 older people, which it called Uganda’s first government-led shock-responsive social protection response.
He said WFP bought about 900 metric tones of food from smallholders in 2025 and worked with 76,000 farmers, 67 percent of them women, to reduce post-harvest losses. Its lessons: act early, make innovation inclusive of women, who it said have the least land, credit and water, and pair new technology with indigenous knowledge.