Overview

Agriculture is a quarter of the economy and engages most households. Agriculture, forestry and fishing generated UGX 65,620.7 billion of value added in FY2025/26, 26.2% of GDP, and grew by 6.5% in real terms, according to the preliminary estimate of June 2026¹⁸. On the World Bank's calendar-year series, value added was US$16.2 billion in 2025². The 2024 census counted 6,613,511 agricultural households, 62.3% of all households, and 80.2% of them farmed mainly for home consumption³. The Labour Market Survey of 2025, which counts only work for pay or profit as employment, put agriculture at 37.1% of employment, while 39.9% of the working population was in subsistence agriculture⁹.

Cooking bananas, maize, cassava and beans feed the country, and coffee earns foreign exchange. On FAO estimates Uganda was the world's largest producer of plantains and cooking bananas in 2024, with 11.8 million tonnes, and the sixth largest producer of green coffee (own ranking)¹⁰. At the 2024 census 49.2% of agricultural households grew maize and 43.5% beans³. Coffee exports reached 8.3 million 60-kg bags worth US$2.18 billion in FY2025/26⁴. On Bank of Uganda data coffee was 13.9% of goods exports that year (own calculation), after 20.5% in FY2024/25, as gold exports rose to US$8.91 billion¹¹.

Uganda is a net exporter of agri-food products. On UN Comtrade data Uganda exported US$4.80 billion of agri-food products in 2025 and imported US$2.02 billion⁷. Coffee, tea and spices accounted for 53.1% of exports (own calculation), and Italy, Kenya and Germany were the largest buyers. Vegetable fats and oils and cereals were the largest imports, and East African Community partners supplied 41.5% of agri-food imports⁷.

Farm credit is growing but costly. Deposit-taking institutions held UGX 3,371.9 billion of loans to agriculture in August 2026, about US$892 million and 11.8% of their outstanding loans⁶⁵. Agricultural borrowers paid an average shilling rate of 20.1% in FY2025/26, against 18.5% for all shilling loans¹². The Agricultural Credit Facility, in which the Government co-finances half of each loan, had disbursed UGX 1.52 trillion by June 2026¹³. Under the Parish Development Model, UGX 3,258.9 billion had been released to 10,589 parish SACCOs by June 2025¹⁴. The Bank of Uganda raised its Central Bank Rate from 9.75% to 12.0% on 14 October 2026¹⁵.

Farming depends on two rainy seasons. On ERA5 reanalysis data country-average rainfall in 1991–2020 was highest in April and October, within the March–May and September–November seasons (own calculation). The September–November 2016 season was the driest of 1991–2025, and both seasons of 2021 and 2022 were below the 1991–2020 average¹⁶. FAO recorded 11,140 hectares equipped for irrigation in 2012¹⁷. The updated NDC of 2022 targets a reduction of emissions by 24.7% below business as usual by 2030, of which 82.7% is to come from agriculture, forestry and land use¹⁸.