Bodaboda industry affecting agriculture, food security in Uganda

KAMPALA, Uganda

Osman Guli is a 60-year-old peasant in Uganda's Luwero district, but all of his children have left for towns and cities in search of better opportunities.

"I still attend to my garden, growing pineapple and bananas, [but] I have no one to help me," he said.

This is because in most of rural Uganda, it is the elderly who practice agriculture while the young work as motorcycle taxi drivers, locally known as bodaboda.

Bodaboda are bicycles and motorcycle taxis commonly found in the East African country.

The term, which means moving from one place to another in the Luganda language, dates back to the late 1970s and early 80s when bicycles were used to transport smuggled goods from Kenya’s border to the Ugandan border. Motorcycles were later added.

Experts say that with young people shifting from agriculture to bodaboda and other activities, Uganda's food security is at risk.

Only 30% of the people in the 15-30 age group reported agriculture as their first occupation, according to the Uganda Bureau of Statistics' last agricultural survey in 2018. More than 50% of the remaining 70% are older than 50.

David Luganda, the executive director of Africa Farmers Media Center, said it is unfortunate that young people are more interested in operating taxis than getting involved in agriculture.

“The elderly cannot produce food to full capacity. We are sitting on a time bomb,” he told Anadolu Agency. "We have (over) 1,000 members, there is no one below 45 years," he said about a communal agricultural group that his organization supports in Nsonga, an island in central Uganda.

He said that apart from the elderly not being able to grow a lot of food, they also lack modern knowledge like the use of smartphones that are instrumental in giving ideas on climate, and also looking for markets and agricultural services.

Henry Wandera, a senior official at the Agriculture, Animal Industries and Fisheries Ministry, said they are concerned that many young people are running away from agriculture.

"We are trying to make young people get interested in agriculture by giving them incentives such as seeds, hoes, and fertilizers,” he said.

Wandera said there is a need to change the trend such that "food security is assured now and in the future."

He claimed that food production is declining in most districts as the elderly cannot produce at a maximum.

According to him, a decade ago, the Bugiri district produced more than 1,000 tons of groundnuts, but now their output is 540 tons only.

Similarly, he continued, the Iganga district produced more than 5,000 tons of maize annually – a figure now reduced to 3,000 tons.

But why are so many people turning to bodabodas?

The chairman of a bodaboda operators union said the youth prefer bodaboda to agriculture because it is easier to make money in the passenger transportation industry.

“Driving a bodaboda lets them earn quick money," said Muhammad Baliruno. “They earn money every day. On average a bodaboda operator earns at least 20,000 Uganda shillings ($6), but earning from food crops takes months."

Majid Isabiye, 30, who has been in the bodaboda business for half a decade, told Anadolu Agency that it is "only fools who believe that agriculture is better than bodaboda."

"In the five years I have been in the bodaboda business, I have earned what would take me 10 years to get if I was practicing agriculture. I have managed to construct a home in addition to sponsoring my own wedding ceremony, among others," he said.

In a recent address to members of the National Resistance Movement party, Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni advised youngsters to embrace agriculture. He said that the government will support the youth by sending funds to be used in agriculture.