Lots of Matooke

I explained my trip and research topic to a lot of people before I began traveling. After listening closely to my detailed explanation, about half of my friends took a second, tilted their heads, and then asked me, “Wait… you’re getting a bunch of money to travel around the world eating food?”

 

The short answer is no. The other short answer is yes…

 

 

But, to make this a worthy blog post, a long answer….

 

To begin, I got made fun of today by a random stranger for drinking water as I walked down the street. Yesterday, my research assistant, Ismail, (who happens to be fasting for Ramadan) asked me, “You really like water, don’t you?” When I discussed this with my host sister, her explanation (summarized from a lengthy conversation) was, “We [Ugandans] don’t take water much.” (Sure, these conversations have made me a bit less uneasy about drinking water in front of Ismail all day long—given that he’s fasting for Ramadan, and it’s hot….) However, there is also a lot of tea and liquid-y porridge drank around my host home.

 

Furthermore, in my quest to figure out what exactly I’ve been eating here— and if there is more to the multiple types of starches usually piled on my plate than carbs—I’ve discovered that matooke is about 75% water. Matooke, perhaps the most common staple dish here, is made from bananas, yet not the bananas I’m used to. Instead of sweet and yellow and full of fiber, matooke are green and starchy and lack a significant amount of any nutrients. I don’t mean to degrade matooke, for it plays an integral role in physically sustaining Ugandans and in fostering their distinct, rich food culture. Wealthy and poor Ugandans alike pile matooke on their plates (and their foreign-born guests’ plates) at lunch and dinner. It serves as an ideal, filling base to eat with soups, sauces (mostly bean or peanut-based), and vegetables. However, my Western culture-fostered carbophobia aside, there is in fact growing concern about the lack of nutrients in Ugandans’ staple starches—matooke, posho, “Irish” (potatoes), sweet potatoes, cassava, rice, and kalo (millet bread).

 

And that’s how a key link between how the ~seven types of starchy foods on my lunch plate each day appertain to my research on food security: urban farming provides Kampala residents with a variety of nutritious foods that they wouldn’t otherwise have access to. Furthermore, the rising popularity of urban vegetable farming, and accompanying government and community organization programs, also holds potential to increase awareness of the importance of a balanced diet for all urban Ugandans, no matter their socioeconomic status.

 

Kampala residents’ frequent consumption of calorie-dense foods starches provides convenient access to the energy necessary to lead their daily lives; however, staple dishes alone, like matooke, posho, and white potatoes, lack the nutrients necessary for people to “maintain healthy and active lives” (from the World Health Organization’s definition of food security). For that reason, the Kampala Capital City Authority (KCCA) has emphasized the importance of urban vegetable production as a means to increase people’s nutritional outcomes through its various urban agriculture program.

 

Over the past two weeks, I’ve heard many conflicting opinions on the potential for urban agriculture to provide a significant portion of the city’s food supply. Everybody agrees that key crops, like matooke and potatoes, should continue to be produced in rural areas (given practical land and environmental constraints). However, through my interviews, I’ve discovered that government officials’ and researchers’ perceptions of how much food could and should ultimately be produced within the city limits varies greatly.

 

The first researchers I spoke to at the National Agricultural Resource Organization’s (NARO) Kawanda branch primarily conduct research to improve agricultural farming and processing techniques in agricultural (rural) areas. When I asked them about food security in Kampala, they all agreed that urban residents’ food security is dependent upon agricultural productivity in rural areas—which directly reflects their research objectives. This group of researchers was quite dubious about the potential for Kampala’s urban agriculture to provide a significant portion of food to the city.

 

However, since the food security of Kampala residents depends upon the agricultural productivity of rural areas, I was surprised to learn that the Department of Disaster Preparedness, housed under the Office of the Prime Minister, has neither conducted any studies about urban food security nor engaged in any programs to specifically ensure urban residents’ food security. (For example, as a last-case scenario, the Department distributes food directly to food-stressed residents in rural regions, yet it has never distributed food to Kampala City.) Furthermore, one official at the Office of the Prime Minister had never even heard about the KCCA’s urban agriculture programs, despite that those programs’ goals align exactly with one directive of the Office of the Prime Minister: to increase Ugandans’ food security.

 

In contrast, an urban agricultural technician from the NARO Mukono branch believes that in the next five or so years, urban agriculture could supply up to half of the city’s food supply. NARO Mukono’s urban agriculture program aims to provide urban farmers with the best training and technologies they need to produce vegetables within small spaces; the program is founded upon Kampala’s land constraints, yet its directors believe it can overcome these constraints to provide a substantial portion of food—especially vegetables—to Kampala.

 

Furthermore, two KCCA officials I spoke to, who oversee the KCCA’s urban agriculture programs for two Kampala Divisions, emphasized the significance of urban agriculture in contributing to the city’s vegetable supply and poultry/egg supply. These programs, which provide urban agricultural training and free supplies to selected vulnerable individuals in different divisions throughout the city, also educate Kampala residents about ideal nutritional practices.

 

No matter whether over 90 percent of food in Kampala continues to be sourced from rural areas, urban agriculture’s distinct qualities can enhance urban residents’ food security amidst environmental and economic disturbances. Despite land constraints, urban vegetable production can add a significant, reliable, and accessible portion of otherwise lacking nutrients to urban residents’ daily diets. Furthermore, the KCCA’s and other community based programs education on nutrition, which accompanies their urban agriculture programs, can further increase urban residents’ food security. Finally, in the case of decreased agricultural productivity, such as that caused by environmental change, or decreased food supplies available to Kampala, such as that caused by peacetime in South Sudan, urban agriculture may provide a more reliable supply of food to urban residents.