An Economic Policy Research Centre (EPRC) analysis has established that households with access to a national road – paved or unpaved roads – experience better food security outcomes compared to those with none.

Dr Swaibu Mbowa, the EPRC Senior Research Fellow, noted that, “The comforting thing is that there has been an increase in food security outcomes because of access to combination of market and national road infrastructure within the local council (LC) and outside the LC.”

Mbowa was presenting preliminary findings of the study on the nexus between food security and market and road infrastructure at the 13th National Forum on Agriculture and Food Security held at Protea Hotel in Kampala on June 26, 2025. He said: “We realised that consistently, households that live in LC areas where national road traverses and have access to the market within the LC and outside the LC, have consistently [fared better] in food security.”

“Our work was to interrogate the impact of road and market infrastructure on household food security. Logic alludes to the fact that there is a relationship. But we needed to confirm to what extent is this relationship,” Mbowa said.

The EPRC team used Dietary Energy Consumption (DEC) to measure food security using data from the Uganda National Household Survey for the years 2009/10 to 2019/2020. They also used data from Uganda National Panel Survey for 2013/14, 2015/16, and 2018/19. Uganda Bureau of statistics (UBOS) produced the data.

This research comes at a time when there are serious concerns about persistent food insecurity in some communities around Uganda, and whether resources poured in road and market infrastructure could facilitate food security in the country. At least 46% of households in Uganda are food insecure.

Food insecurity, experts have observed, is not necessarily because of deficiencies in production. It is also about failure to move food from surplus regions to needy ones.  

Institutions such as the World Bank have re-echoed similar sentiments, with Axel van Trotsenburg, the senior managing director, noting recently that, “Food insecurity in Africa isn’t just about producing more — it’s about fixing the broken systems that prevent it from getting where it’s needed most.”

He added: “By investing and improving transportation, we can remove the key bottlenecks, reduce costs, and ensure more reliable access to food for millions of people.”

EPRC Executive Director Dr Sarah N. Ssewanyana said better connectivity means a “Uganda where no farmer’s produce rots at the farm, and no family goes hungry because their village is unreachable.” “Roads and market infrastructure are the vital arteries of our food system; where they are strong, food flows, but where they are weak, communities suffer,” Ssewanyana added in a statement read on her behalf by the Programmes Manager Elizabeth Birabwa.

Meanwhile, the EPRC analysis also noted shifting patterns in food accessibility. The number of Ugandans producing their own food has dropped to about 30%, down from 50% ten years ago. Those buying from the market has grown to 60% while 10% of Ugandans depend on food gifts. This calls for improved connectivity for food to flow easily to each segment of the population.

Not Fast Enough

As the population grows, people without access to the critical infrastructure has increased. Accessibility to critical national infrastructure is not growing fast enough, Swaibu noted. This has seen the population is pushed further away from the [needed] infrastructure. The study controlled other factors that impact food security including education, age, the gender of the household head, religion, marital status, residence location, and household size.

What they say

Eng Twinamatsiko Emmanuel, Ministry of Works and Transport Ass. Commissioner for district, and community access roads:

The Ministry of Works and Transport has tried as much as possible to do the mapping of agricultural production zones.  We also target agro-industrial parks. We have roads within those areas and soon we are going to make roads in the [country’s] twenty-three industrial parks. The other area where we streamline is enhancing feeder and farm roads that link smallholder farms. We aggregate these areas and then have access roads to the markets.  We have inadequate funding for road maintenance, including equipment repair. Unpaved roads are susceptible to flooding and limited technical capacity at the local government and local contractors.

Mr. Alex Bambona, Ass. Commissioner Food and Social Security at the Ministry of Agriculture:  

As far as food security is concerned, we have moved [to solve] the current challenges of climate change and building resilience within the food system. Road infrastructure is not our core mandate, but the ministry has been serious about irrigation throughout the country and working much strongly with the Ministry of Water and Environment. Our work is more to do with the on farm and to see that bulk water reaches the on-farm.  The road infrastructure remains the basic enabler, and we are more concerned with the rural and community roads.

Mr. Ahimbisibwe Fred, Official from Ministry of Trade:

Trade acts as an intermediary between surplus producers and deficit consumers. And without trade, food security would be out of the dialogue. Trade ensures that we have [food] availability, accessibility, and affordability, and variety. This happens because we can connect producers and consumers. Trade happens when we have the infrastructure – both physical and software (regulatory framework).  What trade has done is to ensure that we have a favourable framework to ensure that there is free flow of agricultural goods from the agricultural centres to destination markets. These markets that producers use are governed by Markets Act 2023.  

Presentation