Food sovereignty as praxis: rethinking the food question in Uganda

Abstract

This article critically reflects upon conceptual and analytical questions that affect the practical implementation of food sovereignty in Uganda, a country often labelled as the potential breadbasket of Africa. It proposes to look at the integration of food and land-based social relations in the context of localised and historical-geographical specificities of livelihood practices among Acholi peasants in northern Uganda as a way to ground the concept. It argues that many of the organising principles at the core of the food sovereignty paradigm are inscribed in the socio-cultural and ecological practices of peasant populations in northern Uganda. Yet these practices are taking place in an increasingly adverse national and international environment, and under circumstances transmitted from the past, which enormously challenge their implementation and jeopardise the future of food security and sovereignty prospects for peasant agriculture. Emerging debates on food sovereigntyThe global food crisis of 2008 generated a throng of food riots across the global South, as consumers increasingly confronted volatile food supplies and skyrocketing prices. 1 Although the crisis affected developing countries differentially, by the year's end the emergency had raised food import bills by an average of 37%, 2 ultimately adding another 75 million people to the ranks of the hungry and 125 million to the category of extreme poverty. 3 Various explanations have been given for this price volatility. They include the rise of middle class demands; changing diets in countries like Brazil, India and China; and the associated growing demand for animal feed, energy security, and mitigation of climate change. Though significant, these explanations represent only partial readings of the crisis, to which we should add speculation in commodity futures (financialisation of the food sector), conversion of farmland *

Agroecology to Promote Just Sustainability Transitions: Analysis of a Civil Society Network in the Rwenzori Region, Western Uganda

“…This has multiple intersecting causes; on the one hand, existing institutions and persistent ideas about what constitutes "modern" agriculture favor conventional technologies [16]. At the same time, the state's persistently neoliberal approach to development [63] results in slow progress on agricultural modernization, while paving the way for private actors whose primary interests do not necessarily lie in poverty reduction, smallholders' land rights, or practices that reduce the demand for agro-inputs [7]. But as Fuenfschilling and Truffer [78] remind transition scholars, all regimes have cracks and contradictions [78].…”

“…Although this is a rather blunt generalization, it does seem to apply here. Agriculture is in a state of transition, albeit not agroecological transition [7]. It is not only a question of what kind of agricultural modernization that is sought, but also how.…”

“…A recent collection of 33 case studies of research and development projects documents the "success of agroecological agriculture" across Africa [55]. But despite these success stories, agroecology remains marginal in terms of official agricultural development plans and funding in the Global South [14] and so also in Uganda [7,16].…”

“…According to a 2011 World Bank policy note, the strategy of providing inputs and targeting a small number of large farmers is ineffective, economically distortive and expensive [6]. It disregards the interests of smallholders by favoring agribusiness, investors, and large-scale plantation systems (thus also neglecting environmental concerns associated with conventional agriculture) [7]. Interestingly, there are some areas where the state has taken an increasingly interventionist approach in recent years, most notably agricultural extension.…”

Bitter sugarification: sugar frontier and contract farming in Uganda

“…Smallholders' commercialization, through their integration in generally export-oriented agroindustrial clusters or agropoles, has been one of the rallying cries of the Ugandan government as the political establishment identified the rise of global agricultural prices not as a threat to the social order but as an opportunity to be seized by expanding the production of export crops that are increasingly being demanded on the regional and global market for which Uganda enjoys a comparative advantage (Martiniello, 2015b). The Museveni's government has been a strong advocate of the biofuels bonanza (Zommers et al, 2012), in the belief that 'every sugar plantation is also an oil field' (Child 2009, p. 248-249).…”