From time immemorial leaders, researchers, advisers and parents have worried about the dangers of food shortages at household, national and international levels. Food is therefore not only the most basic of basic human needs but also a national security issue. Steps including the British Corn Laws, agricultural subsidies in developed countries, the common agricultural policy of the European Union and the introduction of food storage and famine crops like cassava/manioc in developing countries have been implemented to ensure food availability at all times. The danger of population growth exceeding food supplies was expressed in ‘An Essay on the Principle of Population’ by Rev. Thomas Robert Malthus a British economist and Anglican pastor published in 1798. It has remained a standard essay to this day in 2010 even when the world has enough food.
Governments in developed and developing countries are putting more emphasis not only on the amount and frequency of food eaten by their citizens but on the quality as well. In some developed countries the challenge of obesity is being addressed because it is seen as a constraint to human development and national security.
In Brazil, a developing country, the government is implementing a program that gives money to low income households so that pregnant women go to clinics to check on the health of the mother and the fetus and to send their children to school. This is an example of a government that has understood the importance of human capital formation for economic growth, development and nation building.
There is scientific evidence that brain formation takes place during the first three years of human life from conception. Children who are born underweight are permanently physically and mentally handicapped and therefore a liability to society.
During the two-year global food crisis that began in 2008, many governments suspended food exports in order to protect their populations from starvation. Discussions that took place during this period confirmed the critical role of small holder farmers as productive, efficient, environmentally-friendly and socially least destabilizing. The international community and many national governments have begun to boost agricultural productivity and total production of small holder farmers to ensure adequate food security at household level and surplus for trade in national, regional and global markets.
Although one of the reasons behind British colonization of Uganda was to secure food for its exploding population, colonial authorities made sure that famines were prevented in Uganda through a variety of strategies. First, authorities made sure that every household had storage facilities for emergency food. Local chiefs regularly inspected the stores to ensure they contained food. Households which failed to comply were dealt with according to the law.
Second, British authorities introduced famine crops such as cassava which grows well in ecologically difficult environments like poor soils and low rainfall and stores longer in the soil than other tubers.
Third, the problem of under-nutrition in low income households was addressed through the development of fisheries to provide an affordable source of protein. Nutrition clinics were established throughout Uganda to treat under-nutrition cases and teach women how to prepare balanced and safe meals. The courses included overall hygiene especially drinking boiled water and washing hands before touching food. Eating raw food was discouraged. Dispensaries had food and nutrition security programs delivered through pictures and charts for illiterate mothers. Home economics was taught in schools. Health officers were hired from local to the district level. The government program on food security and safety was supplemented by Church-based Mothers’ Unions which trained spouses of priests as trainers of women in their parishes.
Finally school children had lunches. Primary schools made sure all children brought lunch with them. By eating in groups, children had balanced meals because they brought different foodstuffs which they shared. Some brought bananas mixed with peanut source, others sweet potatoes with beans, yet others millet bread and green vegetables and others brought millet porridge etc. The desire to enjoy nutritious lunches improved school attendance and performance. Teachers who had their houses on school premises also had lunch and snacks during break time. Consequently, students and teachers were alert and active all day. Teachers taught well and children listened, heard and absorbed what was taught. Understanding in class was important because there were few text books or no chalk to write on the black board.
In secondary schools (junior high) lunches were provided by schools. Since senior secondary schools and universities had boarding facilities food served three times a day was provided by the school and university. Evening tea and bread with butter and jam were also served. These programs were continued under the Uganda Peoples Congress (UPC) independence government in the 1960s.
The above-mentioned measures explain in large part why Ugandan pupils and students did well at school – in Uganda and abroad – because they had a solid food and nutrition foundation. They ate relatively well: breakfast, lunch and dinner – at least. Because of nutritious food and good hygiene children built immunity and resistance to disease and rarely fell sick. Parents never sold food grown for household consumption. They grew food for domestic consumption and crops for sale like tobacco, cotton or coffee. Mothers saw to it that their children ate well – whether they worked outside the home or not.
Uganda experienced tremendous difficulties during the 1970s under the Amin regime. Nevertheless, Ugandans managed to find something to eat because they adjusted quickly. Many urban families drifted back to rural areas where they grew food for their families (in Uganda, urban people retain their land in the countryside). Many farmers replaced cash crops with food crops because feeding a family came first. Those who stayed in towns introduced urban farming. Every space was used for growing food and grass to feed ruminants such as goats or even cows under zero grazing arrangements. Pig and chicken rearing was introduced. Consequently many households had something to eat at least twice a day.
The above strategies that served Uganda very well since 1894 – when Uganda became a colony – were swept away almost overnight when the National Resistance Movement (NRM) government came to power in 1986. The rhetoric of food and nutrition security developed during the bush war in 1981-1986 was abandoned.
Championed by President Museveni, the NRM government emphasized commercial and export agriculture by increasing traditional commodities of cotton, coffee, tobacco and tea, and diversifying into non-traditional exports such as fish, beans and cut flowers to increase export earnings. Removal of subsidies on education, health and other public utilities and the introduction of user fees forced households to sell food. A 1994 report showed that in Rukungiri district many households were selling so much food that there was not enough left even for children.
The government policy of production for cash and not for the stomach was largely enforced. Ugandans were lured into buying mobile phones, drinking too much alcohol by making it inexpensive and watching movies in towns and countryside alike. So they sold food to raise cash for non-food items. There was not enough food for household consumption and under-nutrition especially of mothers and children increased. Doctors and nurses I consulted in rural and urban areas have all confirmed that food insecurity is a major cause of ill-health in Uganda.
When immunity is low the body is so susceptible to disease that even minor colds will keep one from school or work. At school or work hungry people do not do well. I have personally witnessed lactating (breast-feeding) mothers faint because they had not eaten for a whole day, and many students and teachers sleeping in the morning and afternoon sessions. In the morning, classrooms were full. When I checked in the afternoon, they were half empty! Upon discrete consultations, I learnt that many children and some teachers don’t have breakfast and lunch. When such students graduate, they are functionally illiterate and unemployable even when jobs are available.
The selling of food has reduced food availability at the household level with many other adverse consequences. Under-nourished women produce underweight children with permanent physical and mental disabilities. In Uganda 12 percent of children are born underweight. Infant mortality rate that gauges the health of the economy has increased from 75 to 78 per 1000 live births. The percentage of under-five children that are under-nourished is around forty percent and over 30 percent of Ugandans go to bed hungry. Those who eat consume mostly cassava or maize. These two foodstuffs are nutritionally deficient and contribute to neurological impairment and insanity. That explains in large part why so many Ugandans – close to forty percent – have neurological problems with many actually insane. Stress from joblessness and other causes have added to neurological disabilities.
School dropout and absenteeism from work have increased. Efforts by parents to provide school lunches have been rejected by the government although it has plans to feed children. NEPAD (New Partnership for Africa’s Development) to which Uganda belongs adopted a resolution that African governments should introduce school feeding programs with international support as appropriate. The Uganda government has yet to do so.
About two years ago, in the midst of the global food crisis that pushed prices beyond the reach of many consumers, President Museveni addressed the United Nations General Assembly. He stated that he and his fellow Ugandan farmers were benefiting from high food prices which improved their incomes. He did not address the impact of high food prices on Ugandan consumers.
Uganda has had a liberal trade policy which has led to too much food exports with too little left for domestic consumption raising prices beyond the means of many consumers. Consequently food and nutrition insecurity has increased with adverse impact on human capital formation.
There have been suggestions that Ugandans who care about the future of the country should demand that whichever party wins next year’s presidential and/or parliamentary elections should pledge during the current campaigns to correct the current food and nutrition security policy which NRM has pursued since 1987. In that year, the government entered into an agreement with the IMF, calling for increased and diversified exports.