We aim at ending hunger, achieving food security, improving nutrition and promoting sustainable agriculture.
Food is a fundamental human need.
Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) aim to end hunger, achieve food security, improve nutrition, and promote sustainable agriculture. They were established to ensure easy access to nutritious, healthy foods and how they can be sustainably secured for everyone.
According to the National Development Plan (NDP), based on the strategic review of SDG2 in Uganda (2017), Uganda was rated among the countries that are largely considered to be food secure.
Despite significant progress, the Busoga region continues to face the challenge of hunger, as observed, experienced, and published in local publications.
Food security refers to the situation that exists when all people, at all times, have physical, social, and economic access to sufficient, safe, and nutritious food that meets their dietary needs and food preferences so that they can lead active and healthy lives.
The NDP II indicates that nutrition is essential during early childhood, influencing an individual’s health, cognitive development, and economic outcomes into adulthood. Furthermore, according to the Uganda Nutrition Action Plan (UNAP, 2011), fighting malnutrition is critical to the country’s food security operations.
Malnutrition was indicated as one of the important factors that, over the years, have been responsible for causing the deaths of many Ugandans, reduced agricultural productivity, and increased poverty, among other effects.
Inadequate dietary intake was also cited as the primary driver of malnutrition. The three leading causes of this inadequacy are low intake of food levels, mainly due to seasonality in food production, income-earning patterns, and variability in food prices.
In young children, insufficient dietary intake is caused mainly by inadequate maternal and child care, poor access to healthcare, and micronutrient deficiency, particularly of vitamin A and iron.
Diet Diversification
As quality foods are essential to the growth of individuals and their respective societies, the Uganda Nutrition Action Plan (UNAP Survey) observed that residents of the Busoga region often consume monotonous and unvaried diets, which frequently cause micronutrient deficiencies. Diet diversification was included as a core indicator for monitoring nutritional progress during the survey.
Food Poverty
Just like income poverty, food poverty is a big issue in Busoga.
The survey findings showed that about 50% of the households in the Busoga region experienced food poverty. Families in rural areas were nearly twice as likely to be food poor as in towns and urban centres.
Sources of Food
Considering the source of food, overall, food purchases (57%) contribute the largest share to the Dietary Energy Consumption (DEC), followed by own-produced food (37%), with food received in-kind and food consumed away from home. The share of the DEC from food purchases was much higher in towns and urban areas.
HOUSEHOLD ENTERPRISES
The contribution of household enterprises to boost a household’s income, create employment, and help reduce poverty has been of interest to many sectors. The motivation for operating these kinds of enterprises is to supplement household income and act as a coping mechanism against the unpredictability of the prices of agricultural products.
The enterprises covered here are primarily informal and include those inside the household’s dwelling, at the roadside, in other fixed locations, and mobile.
To fully comprehend the impact of household enterprises on a household as a whole, it is critical to understand the characteristics of household enterprises, including the possibilities and problems they face.
2016/17 UNHS asked all households if they had any household enterprises in the form of non-agricultural businesses such as offering any professional services for pay, salon businesses, taxi hire services, craft shops, hotel/restaurant services, carpentry work, kiosks, street/stall sales of merchandise, tailoring, agriculture, and forestry and fisheries-related enterprises including poultry keeping, apiary, piggery, and fish farming for commercial purposes, among others.
Nature of Household Enterprises
According to the International Standard Classification of Industries (ISIC), several activities are classified into broader industry categories: trade, manufacturing, agriculture, forestry and fisheries, hotels, restaurants and other eating places, transport and storage services, mining and quarrying, and other service activities.
Other services include financial and insurance, construction, human health and social work, education, real estate, arts, entertainment and recreation, public administration, administrative and support services, and professional scientific and technical activities.
Many of these services or activities might be operational at low levels in Busoga or unheard of; however, there is a need to infuse them in the region.
Location of Household Enterprise
The choice of business premises influences several aspects of an enterprise, including customer proximity, which usually translates into sales and profitability.
Most (31%) of the household enterprises are located at home, either inside or outside the proprietor’s premises. Twenty per cent of the enterprises are mobile (no fixed premises), whereas 49% are in a designated location other than the home premises, including industrial sites (1%), traditional markets (12%), commercial district shops (3%), roadsides (9%), and other fixed locations (26%).
Employment in household enterprises
Households with enterprises were also asked about the labourers they used to operate their businesses. The labourers were grouped into three broad categories: working proprietors, contributing family labour, and employees (hired labour).
Fifty-five per cent of the workers in household enterprises were working proprietors, followed by hired labour (28%) and contributing family members (13%).
Regarding the sex of the persons working in household enterprises, most females were working proprietors (62%) compared to males (50%). More males were hired labourers (37%) compared to their female counterparts (24%).
Sources of Funds for Starting Enterprises
The availability of start-up capital might impede many households or individuals who wish to start any business.
The limitations, particularly among small and medium-sized businesses, manifest as a need for more collateral for borrowing from financial institutions.
Household enterprise owners were asked to state their source of money for setting up the enterprise. Seventy-eight per cent of the enterprises were started using their savings, 13% of the enterprise owners revealed that they did not need any funds to start up, and only 5% had taken a loan from financial credit facilities such as SACCOs, MDIs, commercial banks, and local groups.
Factors Affecting Expansion of Household Enterprises
Environment
Across the globe, the expansion of household enterprises faces a multitude of factors ranging from internal factors in the day-to-day running of the business to external factors within the environment in which they operate. These factors tend to have differing impacts on businesses. One notable constraint lies in limiting growth or expansion.
Respondents were asked to indicate the major factors that constrain their ability to increase the size of their businesses. Overall, lack of finances (26%), lack of demand for their goods and services (22%), and lack of input (12%) are the leading constraints of household enterprises, accounting for 60% of all possible constraints faced.
Lack of Finance
Other Factors
Other factors include high taxes (5%), lack of market information (4%), poor quality roads (5%), lack of time for the proprietor to work in and on the enterprise (4%), and legal/regulatory issues (3%), which collectively account for 22% of the constraints.
Interestingly, 3% of those owning household enterprises were not interested in expanding beyond the current size, as they felt that their desired business size had been achieved.