Uganda is consistently ranked among Africa's leading countries in embracing certified organic agriculture, with over 200,000 certified organic farmers and a large portion of smallholders practicing organic farming.

This is according to information from the Ministry of Agriculture detailed in the organic farming Policy of 2019.

A concerted effort by the line Ministry and development partners indicates that a good number of farmers are embracing organic farming across the country with the produce mainly attracting export market thereby earning better revenue in farmer pockets.

This was revealed by experts from the National Organic Agricultural Movement of Uganda (NOGAMU) during the l2026 organic Expo week launch that will attract farmers across Africa case their organic farm products from November 4^th- 7^th in Kampala

Experts urge farmers practicing organic farming to set up tourist sites in their farms to earn extra income.

Background

The executive director NOGAMU Dr Chariston Namwoza, defines organic farming as an agricultural system that relies on natural ecological processes, biodiversity and biological inputs rather than synthetic fertilizers, chemical pesticides and growth hormones.

He explains that sustainable agricultural systems that use ecologically based pest controls and biological fertilizers derived from animal and plant waste and nitrogen fixing cover crops result in production of healthy foods.

Modern organic farming was developed as a response to the environmental harm caused by the use of chemicals in conventional agriculture.

According to experts the concept of organic agriculture were developed in the early 1900s by Sir Albert Howard, F.H.King, Rudolf Steiner and others who believed that the use of animal manures made into compost, use of cover crops, crop rotation and biologically based pest controls resulted in a better farming system.

Howard having worked in India as an agricultural researcher, gained much inspiration from the traditional and sustainable farming practices he encountered there and advocated for their adoption in the Western countries.

Such practices were further promoted by various advocate such as J.I. Rodale and his son Robert, in the 1940s and onward, who published Organic Gardening and Farming magazine and a number of texts on organic farming.

This led to adoption of organic foods worldwide though farmers in Africa including Uganda where organic farming exited form the inception of domesticating agriculture.

This year’s Organic and Nature Expo is the 4^th organized under the theme “organic and regenerative innovations, Africa’s competitive edge”

What the Expo is all about

Dr Namwoza explained that this is the first event to attract partners trading in organic farm products across Africa with a number of buyers coming from the European Union.

“This is a meeting which will attract farmers, processors, investors and consumers across the African continent and beyond. Our focus is in intra-regional trade. We have experts who will come and speak about the Kilimo high green products from Kenya which focuses on organic agricultural products promoted in Kenya for our farmers to take note,” he noted.

Farmers expect to be sensitized on agro forestry, structural farm clinics, regenerative agriculture, organic coffee farming and coffee testing and production of liquid organic fertilizer among others.

Dr Namwoza states that “the Organic farming policy was passed in 2019 when the number of certified farmers was 230,000. This number increased to 270,000 in 2020 and today we have over 700,000 organic farmers across the country,”

Uganda is considered second to India in producing organic farm produce with initial export value of 223 million US dollars which increased to 225 million US dollars in 2025

Today there are 15 manufacturing companies processing organic foods for export. These range from vegetables such as chili, milk, animal beef, fruits such as pineapple, coffee beans and roasted powder including oil seed such as simsim.

In total there are over 400 value added organic products being processed in Uganda for home consumption and export.

The experts have organized the farmers in groups but others operate as a company. In total there are over 2 million farmers across the country who are members of NOGAMU.

Organic farm tourism

Ms Maryln Kabalere, the head of Advocacy and Strategic relations at NOGAMU explained that as her team of experts visits organic farmers across the country, they are urged to set up tourism farms.

“Organic farmers in Uganda can transform their properties into agro-tourism farms by combining sustainable agricultural production with visitor experiences, educational activities and direct to consumer sales. This way they will earn additional income to improve their livelihoods,” Kabalere noted.

She says of these farmers are located in the countryside, the reason the aspect of nature is being considered in this year’s Expo.

This means what farmers are producing are environmentally friendly because there is no use of synthetic chemicals to destroy nature. This to her is what attracts tourists in the farms because they want to visit and purchase their products directly on farm.

According to Kabalere most Ugandan small holder farmers by default are organic farmers due to the low use of synthetic fertilizer and other chemicals.

The recommended farmer practices include handling of soil fertility through compost manure and crop rotation

Pest and disease management is done through manual weeding, spraying using organic sprays processed using traditional plat roots and leaves and tillage is done through conservation agriculture.