Attending the 31st National Agricultural Show in Jinja Uganda in July 2025

Coming back from Lusaka, the next opportunity for a meeting of our representatives under the Embu Declaration was soon: the 31st National Agricultural Show in Uganda.

      The Kenyan delegation of 10 WoFaAK representatives attends the Show in Jinja. 

The background is to meet the common resolutions of the Embu Declaration through mutual support and exchange at conferences and fairs in the countries. The arrangement made together with Deutscher LandFrauenverband e. V. (dlv) (who is supporting rural women in Uganda) and BBV LIZ is, that the delegated rural women from Uganda, Kenya and Zambia live together for the 4 days, have a shared programme and engage, given the EMBU declaration that binds them.

The Uganda National Farmers Federation (UNFFE) 

is the largest (Private) Non-Governmental Umbrella body for Farmers' Organization in Uganda. Founded in January 1992, it is now home to over four and a half million (4,500,000) smallholder farmers across Uganda, congregated under 170 member organisations that call UNFFE Home. Our mandate stretches from mobilizing, organizing, coordinating and empowering farmers to policy lobby and advocacy regarding Agriculture and farming communities, Agribusiness development and market systems development, capacity building, technology and knowledge dissemination and enhancing good governance and farmer congregation for sustainable linkages.

For now 30 years, UNFFE has collaborated with the Ministry of Agriculture, Animal Industry and Fisheries (MAAIF) and other public and private sector partners to organize the biggest annual Agricultural Show, commonly known as the Source of the Nile National Agricultural Show at the Agricultural Showgrounds in Jinja. 

This year’s Show is happening from the 27th June to 05th July 2025 under the Theme: “Technological Innovations Driving Farm Wealth”. The venue is Jinja agricultural showgrounds.  

Here we share a short report about the exercised programme.

2–3 July: Arrival and Orientation
Delegations from Uganda, Kenya, and Zambia arrived, met UNFFE leadership, toured exhibitions, and engaged with finance, input, and technology providers.

4 July – Rural Women Day
Opened by Ms. Vangi Tumusiime Ekirapa, highlighting the need for better land and finance access, tailored credit, and partnerships.

• GBV: Uganda Police addressed causes and prevention, with calls for grassroots support and awareness.

• PUM Netherlands: Shared expertise in poultry, dairy, and value addition; pledged expert deployment.

• PELUM Uganda (AwoLA): Mentoring for women in agroecology.

• Financial institutions: Presented credit products and mobile banking; uptake was limited due to low awareness.

    

5 July – Regional Meeting (Uganda, Kenya & Zambia)
Reviewed and updated the Embu Declaration MoU with new vision, mission, and structure: network registration, youth platform, rotating annual events, agro-processing, and agricultural education in schools. A WhatsApp group was created for collaboration.

6 July – Closing & Way Forward
Countries committed to appointing six representatives each to revise the MoU, seek donor engagement, and strengthen leadership.

Key Outcomes

• Successful cross-country exchange on GBV, digital agri-finance, and sustainable farming.

• Strengthened partnerships with PUM and PELUM.

• Agreement to formalize a regional rural women’s network under COMESA, with a focus on youth inclusion and digitization.