Agriculture continues to dominate Uganda’s household economy, with 63.9% of households engaged in agricultural activities in the 2024/25 period, according to the latest Uganda Harmonised Integrated Survey released by the Uganda Bureau of Statistics.
The report shows that a majority of households remained consistently engaged in agriculture across all three survey years, underlining the sector’s continued importance to livelihoods, food security and rural incomes.
Among agricultural households, 90.9% are involved in crop production, confirming crop farming as the backbone of Uganda’s rural economy.
However, the composition of agricultural production is beginning to shift significantly as more farmers transition toward selected commercial crops.
According to the survey, coffee-growing households increased by 4.7% between 2021/22 and 2024/25, signaling growing interest in coffee as a cash crop amid rising emphasis on export-oriented agriculture and household income generation.
Cassava production also increased by 5.1%, reinforcing its dual role as both a food security crop and a source of household income in many parts of the country.
Banana (matooke) cultivation remained largely stable over the survey period, maintaining its central role in household consumption and food systems, particularly in central and western Uganda.
In contrast, several staple crops recorded notable declines.
Sweet potato cultivation dropped sharply from 37.3% to 25.1%, while bean production fell from 59.4% to 54.0% during the same period.
Maize production also registered a downward trend, reflecting changing farm priorities, possible land-use shifts and increasing diversification into alternative crops and non-farm activities.
The survey further indicates that the proportion of agricultural households engaged specifically in crop farming declined from 97.1% in 2022 to 90.9% in 2025, suggesting gradual diversification beyond traditional crop dependence.
Among households tracked across all three survey years, 8.8% exited agriculture entirely by 2025, while 7.2% joined the sector during the same period. Meanwhile, 27.4% of households reportedly never engaged in agriculture throughout the survey cycle.
UBOS notes that the findings point to a slowly evolving rural economy where subsistence farming is increasingly being complemented by market-oriented agriculture, small enterprises and other income-generating activities.
The report also shows growth in household enterprises, which rose nationally from 36.9% to 38.8%, indicating continued expansion of informal business activity in rural and urban communities.
The Uganda Harmonised Integrated Survey combines data from the Uganda National Panel Survey and the Annual Agricultural Survey into a single system covering the period from 2021/22 to 2024/25.
UBOS says the harmonised approach allows for more consistent tracking of household welfare, agricultural productivity, labour patterns and socio-economic transitions across Uganda’s 15 statistical sub-regions.
Analysts say the increase in coffee farming aligns with ongoing national campaigns encouraging commercial agriculture, export growth and value addition as part of Uganda’s broader economic transformation agenda.
