Agricultural economy & structure

Real value added in agriculture, forestry and fishing grew by 5.6% in FY2023/24, 6.8% in FY2024/25 and 6.5% in FY2025/26, close to GDP growth of 6.1%, 6.3% and 6.4%¹. Growth has been positive in every year since FY2016/17, the first year of the current base, and the slowest rate was 2.8% in FY2016/17¹. In the fourth quarter of FY2025/26 (April–June 2026) agriculture grew by 7.1% on a year earlier and accounted for 25.8% of quarterly GDP at current prices²³.

Food crops are the largest activity, with UGX 26,763.1 billion of value added in FY2025/26, 10.7% of GDP, followed by cash crops (UGX 12,841.9 billion), livestock (UGX 11,523.0 billion), forestry (UGX 9,161.3 billion) and fishing (UGX 5,305.4 billion)¹. Cash crops rose from 2.5% of GDP in FY2022/23 to 5.1% in FY2025/26 at current prices, which accounts for most of the increase in agriculture's share¹. Own-account production, which is not marketed, was UGX 12,931.2 billion in FY2025/26, about a fifth of agricultural value added (own calculation)¹.

In dollar terms, World Bank data show value added falling from US$8.8 billion in 2010 to US$6.6 billion in 2016, when the shilling's average rate moved from 2,178 to 3,420 per US dollar, and rising to US$16.2 billion in 2025⁴⁵.

The 2024 census counted 45,905,417 people in 10,698,913 households⁸. It defines an agricultural household as any household engaged in crop production, livestock keeping, aquaculture, forestry or woodlots, and 62.3% of households met this definition, 75.6% in rural and 42.8% in urban areas⁸. The census also classified 33.1% of households as in the subsistence economy, a basic-needs definition, and 74.5% of these relied primarily on subsistence farming⁸.

Employment statistics follow the 19th ICLS standard, which counts as employed only those who work for pay or profit. On this basis agriculture accounted for 36.0% of employment in the 2021 Labour Force Survey, 40% in the 2023/24 Household Survey and 37.1% in the 2025 Labour Market Survey⁹¹⁰¹¹. Including work for own use, agriculture engaged 61% of the working population in 2021⁹. The share of the working population engaged only in subsistence agriculture fell from 47.6% in 2019/20 to 36.1% in 2023/24¹⁰. The ILO's modelled estimate, which covers all farm work, was 64.9% in 2025¹². Informal employment including agriculture was 89.2% in 2025¹¹.

The national poverty rate fell from 20.3% in 2019/20 to 16.1% in 2023/24, when it was 19.4% in rural and 10.3% in urban areas¹⁰. Poverty was 20.8% in households headed by crop farmers and 20.7% in households headed by subsistence farmers, against 6.0% for services, and Karamoja had a rate of 74.2%¹⁰.

The Annual Agricultural Surveys counted between 6.9 and 7.4 million agricultural households in 2018–2021/22¹⁴¹⁵¹⁶. The average landholding was 1.35 hectares in 2018 and 1.3 hectares in 2021/22, against 1.1 hectares in the census of agriculture of 2008/09, and 66.2% of agricultural households operated less than one hectare in 2018¹⁴¹⁶. Input use is low. In 2019 a quarter of households used improved seed in the first season and 9% used inorganic fertiliser, and in 2021/22, 96% used traditional seed¹⁷¹⁶. World Bank data put fertiliser use at 3.2 kg per hectare of arable land in 2024¹⁸. Extension reached 14% of agricultural households in 2020 and 12% of continuing farm households in the 2024/25 panel round¹⁵¹⁹.

Land is held under customary, freehold, mailo and leasehold tenure, and the National Land Policy of 2013 states that the majority of Ugandans hold land under customary tenure²⁰. In 2021/22, 63.0% of agricultural parcels were under customary tenure¹⁶. At the 2024 census 16.7% of the population owned land and 58.0% of adult landowners had legal documentation⁸. Agricultural land covered 80.3% of the land area in 2024 and forest 12.0%²¹²².