Uganda’s sugarcane boom leaves families hungry: what needs to change
Originally published by The Conversation – Articles (AFRICA) — Read the original article →
Busoga, in eastern Uganda, is a low, fertile plateau surrounded on three sides by Lake Victoria, the River Nile and Lake Kyoga. Most of its 4.3 million people farm small, rain-fed plots. Yet hunger is common: in the 2024 census, about a third of Busoga households reported going whole days without food.
Sugarcane has been grown commercially here since the 1920s, when one family established a large sugar processing facility. New investors followed after the government stopped setting sugar prices and opened the industry to the private sector in 1991.
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