Uganda bets on drought-tolerant seed and 80/20 irrigation to shield yields

Uganda's government wants every maize, millet and sorghum grower planting drought-tolerant varieties, and it is preparing a national irrigation project to back that shift. Dr Mary Teddy Asio, Assistant Commissioner for Seed Inspection and Certification at the Ministry of Agriculture, Animal Industry and Fisheries (MAAIF), made the case at the 2026 Agribusiness Expo for the Central Region, held at IITA's Sendusu Station in Namulonge on Friday and Saturday.

"Every crop, be it maize, be it millet, sorghum, have varieties that have been tested to produce or to grow and yield even with the little rains or to yield early," Asio said. Farmers who switch to these materials can secure a harvest even when rainfall stops short of the season's full requirements.

The irrigation project remains contingent on money. "The Ministry is developing a project on irrigation, national irrigation project, which if the Minister of Finance gives money, it will be rolled out to the whole country," Asio said. Until that decision lands, two existing schemes carry the load: a cost-sharing arrangement in which farmers pay 20% and government covers 80%, and the World Bank-funded Uganda Climate Smart programme, which supplies irrigation systems free of charge.

The Eastern Africa Grain Council (EAGC) and the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA) organised the two-day expo under the theme "Promoting Resilient Food Systems for Improved Household Incomes and Food Security". Paul Ochuna, EAGC Country Programs Manager and Uganda Country Leader, said the platform exists to close a specific gap.

"The main objective of this platform is to create a link between the industry and the smallholder farmers," Ochuna said. Around 55 exhibitors — seed and input companies, machinery dealers, financial service providers, research institutions and government agencies — are showing tractors, planters, fertilisers and herbicides to roughly 5,000 farmers expected from the Central Region and neighbouring districts including Iganga, Jinja and Mubende.

What does the research pipeline offer growers?

IITA runs research in Uganda on cassava, bananas and soybeans, plus maize work targeting mycotoxins. George Mahuku, IITA's Country Representative, said the institute and the National Agricultural Research Organisation (NARO) have developed biological control solutions for aflatoxin, and now partner with NARO Holdings Limited to scale up Aflaseaf, a biocontrol product that minimises aflatoxin contamination in grain.

Research alone does not deliver products to fields, Mahuku acknowledged. "For us as researchers we are very good at what we do but we don't know how to take those innovations out so that they can get to the people who need them," he said. The EAGC partnership supplies the commercial muscle to move technologies from laboratory to farm.

IITA is also demonstrating climate-smart technologies at the expo: biochar, soil fertility management, irrigation and biodiversity practices.

Can indigenous bananas be improved rather than replaced?

Dr Violet Akech, an IITA molecular breeder, leads work on the banana varieties Ugandan farmers already grow. The institute maintains field and laboratory collections to conserve genetic diversity, then breeds pest and disease resistance into preferred landraces while retaining quality and colour.

"The aim is to improve the already landraces, what you call the indigenous types that the farmers grow and like. It's not to remove them, but to improve," Akech said. Pests and diseases currently prevent farmers from reaching full production potential in these varieties.

"These are not new things. It's just simply what the farmer is already growing, what the farmer already has in the field, but we improve them so that the farmer can get the full potential from their agricultural production of bananas," she said.

How will farmers pay for the transition?

Asio's department regulates seed quality and certification. Mandatory certification applies to certain varieties, while a quality-declared seed system lets farmers select seed based on their own experience of its performance. She credited farmers with identifying traditional varieties that withstand drought, pests and disease.

Cost remains the constraint. Asio called on financial institutions to lend to farmers with adequate grace periods, and urged farmers to save through groups to finance fertilisers, pesticides and seed. "We are asking the financial institutions to bear with the farmers, give them loans and give them a grace period, an adequate grace period so that they are able to afford," she said.

The expo programme includes demonstration plots, farmer training on agronomy, climate adaptation and quality management, and machinery for production, post-harvest handling and processing. Farmers should watch for the Finance Ministry's decision on the national irrigation project — that single budget line determines whether the 80/20 model scales nationwide.