Impact of COVID-19 on food security in Uganda.

Background:

As Uganda is trying to recover from the aftermath of the desert locusts, it is now hit by the novel coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19).

Photo from Nile Post

The pandemic originated from Wuhan, Hubei province of China to the rest of the world. In Africa, Egypt confirmed the first case on 14^th February and since then, there has been a tremendous importation of disease to other African countries. In Uganda, the first case was confirmed on 21^st March and at present, the disease has been confirmed in over 40 patients. It's important to note that the importation and spread of the disease heavily depend on the country's preparedness and its healthy capacity. Hence, Uganda has set standards to help in curbing down the spread of the epidemic. 

Food security is critical to every aspect of people's well-being. It influences health, education and other necessities of life. This article, therefore, intends to address the impact COVID-19 has on food security in Uganda. Food security can be defined as the state of having reliable access to enough quantity of affordable, nutritious food.

Uganda’s Food Security Before the Pandemic. 

According to the UN-report, the number of hungry people stood at 820 million globally by July 2019 mostly from Africa and countries where economic growth is lagging.

Uganda produces more food than it consumes, Yet, poverty still limits people's access to nutritious food, especially in the north and east of the country, the World Food Program reported. A fast-growing population and the presence of the world's third-largest refugee population pose a further challenge to the country's ability to achieve Sustainable Development Goal on Zero Hunger, the report added. Moreover, in 2018 the number of malnourished people stood at 17.6 million. 

Much as we are a few days into the curfew, the effect is as if the country has been shut down for months. I can only imagine the aftermath in the next months or years to come. The Ministry of Finance estimates that an additional 2.6 million Ugandans will go into poverty in case of a steep rise of COVID-19 cases in Uganda. This will put almost half of the country’ population under the threat of food insecurity.

Projected food insecurity after the pandemic:

In many developing countries, millions of families already spend upwards of half of their income on food in normal circumstances. Most of these families’ survival entirely dependents on daily active income. With this I mean, the “No work-No food majority”. I would like you to bend backwards, pose a second and think! What do you think the “No work-No food majority” are going through? That's food for thought!

 Initially, we had increasing unemployment rates and with the current tragedy, I expect more layoffs as companies and businesses try to recover from the economic shock. Secondary, an increase in food production shortfalls will increase the proportion of refugees and natives relying entirely on humanitarian food assistance especially in Northern and Eastern Uganda. Market prices are determined by demand and supply. Delayed planting due to sicknesses and breakdown in the non-food supply chains will ultimately lead to a decrease in the amount of food produced hence upsurge in food prices.

Moreover, the World Food Program report noted that the Ebola outbreak in 2014, for example, led to dramatic increases in the prices of staple foods in countries impacted in West Africa. Furthermore, the food price-spikes of 2007/8 demonstrate that export restrictions, market speculation and panic behaviour were, in part, responsible for the dramatic increase in global food prices in that period—measures we are not protected against today.

Remedies to the Anticipated Food Insecurity.

The novel coronavirus continues to spread drastically, and it is hard to determine when it would be contained. If all the responsible sectors do not contain and curtail the rise of the pandemic as early as possible, the impact might be for years. As the Minister of Finance, Planning and Economic Development, Matia Kasaija said: "To deal with this economic shock, both fiscal and monetary policy adjustments would be required,". This implies that holistic approaches are needed at both global and country-level, hence, the government, financial institutions and all private sectors should be involved.

First and foremost, the financial sector needs to devise means to support the faster recovery of people especially those involved in commercial production. This could be through extending financial assistance in the form of affordable loans.

Secondary, rising food prices should be checked. The government needs to put checks and balances to ensure stable affordable food prices in local markets. One of the ways through which the government achieves this is by releasing food from food banks (if we’ve any). It’s supplied at a cheaper price to buffer the market prices.

Last but not the list, agricultural inputs’ prices should be lowered and extended to village levels. This will make them accessible and affordable to farmers. Additionally, there is a need for more extension services to help farmers improve their farming skills especially to reduce post-harvest losses.

For God and My Country.