Facilitating Smallholder Farmers’ Market Access
In the OIC Member Countries
45
Competitiveness and sustainability issues
Uganda’s farm structure consists almost entirely of small, family-operated farms. The most
recent census data (from
1991) show that most
farms are smaller than 1
hectare; very few exceed
5 hectares . A
cross-country survey of
census data from FAO
(2014) suggests that
farm size has been
shrinking rather than
growing in most African
countries, and recent
household surveys from
Uganda suggest that
farms are still quite
small.92
Nevertheless,
smallholders have managed to grow more on their small plots, and since 1990 agricultural
output per capita has risen steadily. plots output indices from FAO over time.
Livestock production and cereal production have grown steadily, lifting overall production
as well. Non-food output, primarily of cotton, has held steady in recent decades, and
volumes are less volatile.
92 Larson et al. (2014).
FIGURE 19: UGANDA (1991) COMPOSITION OF FARMS BY SIZE
Source: Lowder, Skoet, and Singh 2014.
FIGURE 20: PER CAPITA OUTPUT INDICES FOR AGRICULTURE IN UGANDA
Source: FAOSTAT (FAO 2014).