The Right to Food is a fundamental human right key to the livelihood and well being of human kind. Directly linked to this right is Food security which entails the ability of the population to access food in the right quantity and quality or have means of acquiring it. Recent press reports however indicate that world over, millions of poor people have been hit by a hitherto unknown hunger and malnutrition crisis.

Uganda has not been spared with the effects of food shortage clearly manifest in the ever increasing food prices and an exodus of hungry people to town-centers everyday. It is worth noting however that agriculture forms the backbone of Uganda’s economy. It contributes 40% to total GDP and employs over 69% of the total population of the estimated 30 million people.

There are several factors responsible for the hunger crisis but key to these is poor implementation of laws and policies meant to ensure food security, weaknesses in these laws or their absence altogether.
We need to work on narrowing this policy gap.