By Emmanuel Nsadhu
As I sit in the middle of Kampala’s endless traffic and skyscrapers, my mind often drifts back to the peaceful, food-rich village of my childhood, Buyoboya in Namutumba District. Back then, in the late 1990s and early 2000s, Busoga was a paradise of plenty. Food was not only abundant but also shared freely. Neighbors were family. Granaries were full. Gardens were productive. And joy was in the simple things: digging with grandfather, feasting on sweet potatoes, collecting mushrooms, or storytelling under moonlit skies.
But fast forward to 2025, and the contrast is heart-wrenching. That vibrant, self-sustaining Busoga of my childhood is now a shadow of its former self. What was once the “food basket” of Uganda has become a region dependent on imported food, struggling to feed itself, with many living in chronic poverty.
Busoga is not a desert. It is blessed with fertile soils, reliable rainfall, and access to water bodies like Lake Victoria, the Nile River, River Mpologoma, and Lake Kyoga. Its flat terrain makes it ideal for mechanized agriculture. The environment has not changed drastically; what has changed is the mindset, the leadership, and the support systems that once made agriculture a dignified and sustainable way of life.
Historically, Busoga contributed massively to Uganda’s agricultural output. Even President Milton Obote referred to it as the country’s “food basket.” From cassava and bananas to groundnuts and sweet potatoes, Busoga fed not only its own people but exported food to other regions. Lorries would come directly to villages like Buyoboya to purchase harvests. A full granary was the norm, not the exception.
Yet today, according to successive Uganda Bureau of Statistics (UBOS) reports from 2019 to 2024, Busoga ranks consistently among the poorest regions in Uganda. Alarmingly, a significant portion of its population now struggles to afford even two meals a day.
During my recent travels through Busoga in March 2025, the reality on the ground deeply disturbed me. In Kamuli Town, a small urban center surrounded by rural districts like Buyende, Kaliro, and Luuka, I witnessed trucks from other regions offloading matoke, onions, yams, and even cassava. The irony was painful. Why must a food-rich region import food?
The story was the same in Namutumba, where traders confirmed sourcing their produce from Mbale, Buganda, and even Mbarara. One youth I met dismissed farming as hard work with uncertain returns. “It’s easier to buy food from the market,” he said. “Farming is for the old and poor.”
Throughout my journey, I found the landscape barren, poorly maintained, and largely surrendered to sugarcane plantations. In districts like Namutumba and Iganga, subsistence farming has been abandoned, and few own gardens larger than an acre. Livestock rearing has collapsed due to rampant theft. Most young people have traded hoes for bodabodas, cooking chapati in towns, or migrating as domestic workers to other regions and many youth acquiring passports to go for “ekyeyo” in the UAE countries.
One would ask, where did we go wrong? The answer to this, is straight and simple. Busoga’s descent into food poverty is a result of several interlinked factors:The factor is monoculture mismanagement where sugarcane has replaced food crops, often without adequate returns. Secondly youth disinterest in agriculture seeing it as backward and unrewarding, especially with no skills or support. Thirdly many local leaders focus more on politics than policy or practical solutions.Fourthly the rise of handouts and political tokenism has crippled self-reliance.And lastly Farmers lack access to inputs, information, markets, and extension services.
During President Museveni’s May 2024 visit to Busoga, he expressed deep concern, wondering aloud how people live through such poverty. However, the issue is not just economic, it is cultural, structural, and generational. And while several government and NGO-led interventions have been introduced, many have not borne fruit due to poor implementation, corruption, and lack of community ownership.
If this trend continues, Busoga risks becoming a permanent hub of beggars. A place that once prided itself on hospitality, abundance, and self-sufficiency could soon depend entirely on other regions for survival.
This should alarm all of us the Basoga, religious leaders, political figures, artists, businesspeople, elites, and the cultural establishment. We must rise not just to speak, but to act.We need a comprehensive food revival agenda that will address the following:
- Reignite interest inagriculture through youth skilling and agribusiness support.
- Diversify farming beyond sugarcane into high-value food crops.
- Revive cooperatives and savings groups to support smallholder farmers.
- Promote a culture of pride in farming through media and education.
As echoed in the Busoga anthem, it’s time we join hands in fighting poverty, ignorance, and disease. But without food security, all these battles will be lost before they begin.
Let’s not allow the legacy of our grandparents like Mzee Sabasi Balaba who never bought food to be buried in our silence. Let’s return Busoga to the food hub it once was.
Mr. Emmanuel Nsadhuis a concerned musoga from Namutumba District
