Reimagining Women’s Role in Uganda’s Agricultural Value Chains.

Uganda’s agricultural sector is at a crossroads. Rapid population growth, coupled with extremely low land registration, leaves most rural households’ tenure insecure. Only 16% of registered land parcels in Uganda are owned by women, even though they contribute 70-80% of agricultural labour. Vulnerable groups—especially women, youth, and disadvantaged communities—often lack formal documentation, legal awareness, or access to credit, making it difficult for them to invest in high-value crops like coffee or to participate fully in lucrative value chains collectively.

Despite having one of Africa’s most progressive legal frameworks—anchored in the 1995 Constitution, the 1998 Land Act, the 2013 National Land Policy, and the Succession Act (2022)—implementation has lagged badly. Around 80% of Uganda’s land is under customary tenure, where male inheritance norms dominate, and land rights go undocumented. Institutions tasked with enforcement, such as Area Land Committees and District Land Boards, are chronically underfunded and understaffed. Women remain largely excluded from land titling, which would enable them to use land as collateral for inputs, irrigated farming, storage, and other infrastructure essential in value chains.

Tenure security is not just a legal issue, but a market issue and climate issue rolled into one. When women hold secure land rights, evidence from Rwanda shows they increase agricultural productivity, improve food security, and diversify household income. Rwanda’s Land Tenure Regularization Program (LTRP), begun in 2007, led to nearly 99% of land being registered, and by 2016, nearly 63.7% of titles were held by women or jointly by men and women, enabling women to engage more meaningfully in cash crops, agribusiness, and improved resilience. These achievements indicate what is possible when policy, institutions, and social norms align.

In places such as the Apac District, where customary tenure prevails, many Farmer Field Schools operate under informal land-use arrangements. Women are excluded from decision-making and often depend on male relatives to access even their user rights. As one woman from Witur Women FFS, Adong Catherine, said: “Our FFS gave us seeds to multiply in our gardens, but we have no land to plant. Without secure access, we risk losing yields and income.” This pattern repeats: tenure insecurity restricts access to credit, forces women into low-value crops or short-term arrangements with low returns, and limits their ability to plan investments in specialty value chains like coffee.

Currently, only a small share of Ugandan women benefit from niche value chain opportunities. Initiatives like Bayaaya Specialty Coffee in Sironko offer encouraging proof: started in 2022 with a few dozen women, it now includes over 600 women farmers, about 75% of its registered members, who are paid premiums and bonuses for coffee produced by women. Such models show that with the right incentives, market participation by women can increase sharply, helping households, local economies, and Uganda’s export earnings.

If women’s land tenure security were strengthened—through effective titling or certificates, accessible dispute resolution, gender-equitable customary reforms, and institutional financing support—it is realistic to expect that more than half of smallholder women could secure land documentation, dramatically increase their access to credit, integrate into higher value coffee and cash crop chains, and substantially raise their incomes. Drawing from Rwanda’s example, Uganda could aim for a 50-60% share of title or ownership by women (individual or joint) in registered land over time. Supporting policies, transparent markets, gender-responsive extension, and finance linkages could transform value chains into engines not just of export, but of gender equality, resilience, and shared prosperity.

If Uganda fails to address tenure insecurity, it risks serious losses: stagnated productivity, lower competitiveness in global markets, failure to meet sustainability or traceability standards (e.g. EU regulations for coffee), and continued poverty and inequality—especially among women, whose food security and livelihoods depend heavily on agriculture. The country stands to lose not just economic value, but also climate resilience, social cohesion, and its credibility in implementing its legal and policy commitments, especially the SDGs, Vision 2040, and Agenda 63, among others.

Uganda needs urgent, coordinated action to unlock women’s potential in agriculture:

1. Government should digitize land records, subsidize land documentation for smallholder women farmers, and enforce gender quotas in land governance institutions.

2. Civil Society and Cooperatives must scale legal literacy programs, expand women-led Farmer Field Schools, and ensure transparency in collective sales contracts and tenant agreements.

3. Donors and the Private Sector should fund blended finance schemes for women farmers, especially in niche value chains like coffee, support agroecology hubs, and monitor impacts on value chains and incomes.

4. Community Leaders should champion joint land ownership, inclusive customary practices, and fair dispute resolution mechanisms.

Uganda must act now to close the gap between legal guarantee and customary practice; enable women to use land as leverage; strengthen institutions; and ensure women are not just participants but leaders in niche value chains like specialty coffee and other cash crops. Only then will the narrative shift from women’s marginalization to women’s leadership, unlocking untapped market potential nationally and globally.