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| | | Title | FOOD INSECURITY IN UGANDA: A DILEMMA TO ACHIEVING THE HUNGER MILLENNIUM DEVELOPMENT GOAL | | Author | SSEWANYANA, Sarah ; KASIRYE, Ibrahim | | Subject | Food Security | | Date of Publication | 2010 | | Publisher | Economic Policy Research Centre (EPRC) | | Number of Pages | 41 pages | | Language | English | | Geographical Coverage | Uganda | | Keywords | MILLENNIUM DEVELOPMENT GOAL, MDGs, FOOD INSECURITY | | Abstract | The status of food security in Uganda is worrying. The share of Ugandans suffering from food insecurity measured in terms of caloric intake is alarmingly high with low rates of income poverty. Based on the 2005/06 Uganda National Household Survey data, the study provides insights into access to food at household level. More importantly, the study shows that average caloric intake stood at 1,970 calories per person per day, which is below the minimum caloric requirement of 2,200 calories. As such, a population of 17.5 million Ugandans in 3.1 million households were unable to meet the minimum caloric requirement in 2006. This raises questions on whether Uganda will be able to achieve the Millennium Development Goal (MDG) 1: halving extreme poverty and hunger by 2015. While Uganda is on track to halve extreme poverty, it is less likely to halve extreme hunger by 2015. Yet the results suggest that food insecurity and income poverty are closely linked. Similarly, food insecurity at household level is closely linked to child nutrition status. In other words, antipoverty interventions and interventions to address food insecurity and child nutrition status have to be closely linked. The results further suggest that income growth, land under cultivation, changes in food prices and education attainment of household head significantly impact on caloric intake. | | Copyright Holder | Economic Policy Research Centre (EPRC) | | Copyright URL | http://www.eprc.or.ug | | Filesize | 2456901 MB | | File Format | PDF | | [ View / download original document ] |
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