Uganda's agriculture sector expanded by 6.4% in the 2025/2026 financial year, outpacing its 10-year average growth rate of 4.2%, Agriculture Minister Frank Tumwebaze told Parliament. The sector now represents 26.2% of the country's Gross Domestic Product, with about 7.1 million of Uganda's 10.8 million households depending on agriculture for employment, the minister said.
Growth has been driven in part by rising export earnings from cocoa, which jumped from $93 million in the 2022/2023 financial year to $620 million, according to Tumwebaze's statement. The government has also intervened to support coffee production in northern Uganda, distributing 24,437,367 coffee seedlings to farmers under an exception to its Parish Development Model policy, which normally requires farmers to purchase their own inputs.
However, significant gaps remain in delivering government agricultural programmes. On livestock health, the minister said farmers are now required to pay for foot-and-mouth disease vaccines, with 80,000 farmers enrolled in the scheme so far. Tumwebaze attributed the limited uptake partly to farmer expectations that government should provide vaccines free, and partly to misconduct among some veterinary personnel. The minister cited "to some extent the indiscipline and or corruption of the lower-level veterinary staff" as a factor affecting the programme.
On mechanisation, government has deployed 1,080 tractors since 2018 against a target of acquiring 10,000 tractors over the next five years. Construction has started at four of the 21 planned agricultural mechanisation centres intended to improve farmer access to machinery, although a proposed tractor cost-sharing arrangement awaits Cabinet approval. Tumwebaze also told Parliament to prioritise a Bill seeking to establish a Food and Agricultural Regulatory Authority to strengthen regulation of food and agricultural products.
The minister's statement comes as government pursues agricultural commercialisation, value addition and increased production. Members of Parliament are expected to debate the statement on 27 October 2026. For Uganda's farming households, the gaps in vaccine supply, mechanised equipment access and farm inputs could limit their ability to boost productivity despite the sector's recent strong performance.