Writer: Michael J. Ssali. PHOTO/FILE
Due to poverty a lot of people in Uganda in both rural and urban areas do not have enough inputs to produce enough food to eat.
Many urban dwellers earn far too little to buy sufficient food. Poverty is one of the major causes of food insecurity. Poor households are always more vulnerable to natural disasters such as long droughts, floods, and hailstorms.
Most natural disasters are caused by unpredictable climatic changes that present in the form of too much rain which results in floods and washing away of bridges. When the bridge of an important route breaks down transport is curtailed but it is always the poor communities that are affected most.
Other natural calamities like long droughts and hailstorms lead to failure to raise livestock and to grow crops. Reduced agricultural yields actually mean reduced incomes, less capacity to buy food, and reduced food consumption. Under such circumstances people are not food secure. Unfortunately the position grows worse by the day given the population increase, now estimated to be 46 million, and the bigger food demand.
The September 2024 Food Security Monitor Report by Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA) says, “The prevalence of food insufficient consumption has increased rapidly in the East African and West African regions from August 2024 according to the World Food Programme Hunger Map Live. Across five selected East African countries, the number of people who did not have sufficient food for consumption has gone up by 11.6 million people from 33.7 million in August to 45.3 million in September 2024.
However in some cases when the climate is favourable and there is abundant crop harvest it is still possible for a community to be food insecure. All too often heads of households choose to sell most of the harvests to settle financial problems and leave their family members with hardly enough to eat.
Crop and livestock diseases are also agents of food insecurity in communities. “The Southern African Development Community (SADC) estimates about 68 million people (nearly 17 percent of the region’s population) are affected, while the number of people with insufficient food for consumption has gone up by 100,000 more people.
Failure to limit the number of children brought forth in families is another cause of food insecurity. The parents should ensure that they can purchase enough food for number of children they have.
