As Uganda joins the rest of the world to commemorate the World Food Day, a Twaweza East Africa survey dubbed Sauti za Wananchi has revealed that at least half of the Uganda population has gone a day without a plate of food in the last three months.
According to the survey, poverty came off as the major cause of food insecurity in most urban and rural households.
One out of two citizens (49%) have, in the three months before the survey, gone a whole day without eating due to a lack of money or other resources.
“Even larger numbers have experienced difficulties with food security over the same period. Five out of six (85%) have been worried that they would run out of food, and three out of four (75%)had to skip a meal,” the survey found.
Measured against the goal to end hunger by the year 2030, Uganda still suffers from the hardships of widespread poverty and malnutrition.
Undernutrition is particularly widespread with 36 per cent of the children chronically undernourished or stunted.
Poverty aside, Uganda’s poor food storage and increased subsistence farming have also largely contributed to the food insecurity.
The Hunger Project’s 2017 report indicates that only two of towns in Uganda (Mpigi and Iganga) have food banks, with an average storage capacity of 48,333 kilograms.
With the main crops grown in Uganda being maize, beans, millet, cassava, banana, groundnuts, sweet potatoes, soya, coffee, ginger, tomatoes and irish potatoes, there is more need for better food storage and processing now than before.
This is mainly because of the growing population, unemployment and the pangs of climate change that have recently hit the country.
World Food Day is commemorated on October 16, the same day the Food and Agricultural Organisation was founded back in 1945.