The state on the countryside: Food security as social policy in Uganda

Abstract

In many countries, the benefits of social policies are restricted to a minority of urban wage earners. In Uganda, more than 70 percent of the population, how- ever, currently live in rural areas, working on farms with no direct access to public services other than basic health care or primary schools. In this paper, we intend to look at the history of policies that have aimed to improve the livelihoods of this rural majority—namely, food-security policy. We describe four major stages of this policy in Uganda since early colonial times. During early colonial rule (1900-1930), enforced monetization led to repeated food shortages and fam- ines, which the colonial government answered with a granary policy. In a second period during late colonial times and early independent statehood (1930-1970), Uganda’s food situation remained tense, but more attention to the rural economy allowed for partial gains in wealth and production. After a period of impover- ishment due to turmoil and civil war (1971-1987), in the current fourth phase, rural poverty and malnutrition have remained widespread in Uganda. Liberal economic policies have led to enormous export growth but not to enhanced food security. Food is exported and malnourishment persists. This paper is a first attempt to track the development of food policy in Uganda, due to the lack of studies on the politics around food in African contexts. We argue for a stronger presence of the social question of the countryside both in international relations and in political science as a whole.