Food Habits of Uganda

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Staple crops

Millet bran and corn bran lowers plasma total and LDL cholesterol levels in hypercholesterolemic subjects

Source: Gooneratne, J., L. Munasinghe, et al. (2005). Millet bran and corn bran lowers plasma total and LDL cholesterol levels in hypercholesterimic subjects. 18th International Congress of Nutrition, Durban, South Africa, S. Karger, Annals of Nutrition & Metabolism.

PDF: Millet bran and corn bran lowers plasma total and LDL cholesterol levels

Uganda's staple foods of the past

This article provides interesting insight into the food patterns and nutrient intakes of East African's past and highlights the major influencing factors which brought about the changes.

Reference: Oltersdorf, U. (1971). Comparison of Nutrient Intakes in East Africa. Proceedings of a conference held in Blantyre, Malawi, International Biological Programme, 7 Marylebone road, London, NW1, England.

PDF: Comparison of nutrient intakes in East Africa

Main classes of native crops after colonialism

Note: Small and large millets species were well balanced foods, when they were as usual ground whole.

Food crops and agriculture in Uganda during the 1960s

*Groundnuts replaced sweet potatoes and green vegetables during the dry season when theses adjuvants were not available. Although groundnuts contain 50% of oil they were not a source of vitamin A.

References:
Rutishauser, I. H. E. (1963). "Custom and child Health in Buganda." Tropical Geographic Medicine 15: 138-147.
Loewenthal, J. A. (1935). "An inquiry into vitamin A deficiency among the population of the Teso, Uganda, with special reference to school children." Annual Tropical Medicine 29: 349.
Holmes, E., M. Stanier, et al. (1955). "The serum protein pattern of Africans in Uganda: Relation to diet and malaria." Trans. Roy. Soc. Trop. Med. Hyg. 49: 376.

Different food crop provinces in Uganda 1945

Note: Principal source of food supply in these areas were plantains which were supplemented by sweet potatoes and cassava. This starchy diet was augmented by sim-sim (sesame), ground nuts, beans and miscellaneous vegetables which provided an ingredient of protein and fat and add a relish to what was generally considered to be a tasteless food. A few plants of sugar cane, chillies and ginger were found on most of the holdings, often in the plantain garden included They were just merely subsidiary and only grown in small quantities.

References:
Uganda Protectorate, N. C. (1945). Review of nutrition in Uganda, Government Printer
Rutishauser, I. H. E. (1963). "Custom and child Health in Buganda." Tropical Geographic Medicine 15: 138-147.
Loewenthal, J. A. (1935). "An inquiry into vitamin A deficiency among the population of the Teso, Uganda, with special reference to school children." Annual Tropical Medicine 29: 349.
Holmes, E., M. Stanier, et al. (1955). "The serum protein pattern of Africans in Uganda: Relation to diet and malaria." Trans. Roy. Soc. Trop. Med. Hyg. 49: 376.

UGANDA FOOD CROP ZONES OF THE PAST- MAP

Staple foods of the 1950s and 1960s

In Uganda, a country of diversity in tribes, soils, climate and crops, patterns of production varied greatly in the 1960s. There were at least five main staples with different protein values.

Major food crops under acreages in Uganda during 1963

• Plantains
  
• Finger millet (was the chief staple in the drier parts of Uganda)
  
• Sorghum
  
• Cassava
  
• Maize
  

Past staple foods of the Northern Province (1950s and 1960s)

• Legumes
  
• Finger millet
  
• Sorghum
  
• Nuts (especially groundnuts)
  
• Sesame seeds (sim sim)
  
• Green leafy vegetables
  

Cassava was of major importance as a source of calorie intake in all the provinces in Uganda during the 1950s. Also cooking bananas and sweet potatoes were the main food sources except for the Northern Province. In the Eastern and Northern Provinces finger millet was much more important compared to the other areas. Plantains and sweet potatoes which are low protein crops were grown in such large amounts in the 1950s in Buganda, Eastern and Western Provinces that they made a major contributions to the protein intake.

Most striking differences between 1951 and the later years:

• Large increase in meat and smaller increase in milk
  
• Very large increase in fish
  
• Moderate increase in beans, groundnuts and cassava
  
• Large increase in maize, sorghum, cooking bananas and sweet potatoes
  

Difference between 1958 and 1959:

• Generalized increases of beef and fish
  
• Large increases of beans, mixed, in Buganda and Eastern Province, of sweet potatoes in the Eastern Province

Pigeon peas in the Northern Province

This article provides data on:

• Yields from crops
  
• Estimated crop yields
  

PDF: Protein-calorie malnutrition in Uganda, II-Busoga District, III-Bukedi District, IV-Bugisu District, V-Ankole district

Staple food patterns

The agricultural pattern in Bugosa and Buganda were very similar. In contrast, Karamoja had sorghum as a staple food which for a cereal was highly rated as a protein source.
In Teso and in Lago in eastern and northern Uganda respectively, grain crops were the staples. Opami and Ajuluku, two small administrative units in Teso, had the same dietary patterns in 1937, except of the regular fish consumption in Opami. The staple food was "wimbi", finger millet (Eleusine coracana) ground into meal which, when cooked, was called "atap". From August to December sweet potatoes were usually substituted for wimbi and from January to May flour was made from dry cassava or sweet potatoes mixed with flour made from the stored wimbi. This when coked was also named "atap".

Mtama (Sorghum; Kaffir corn) meal was often mixed with millet meal. A detailed description on this type of diet, the chemical and calorie details have been published by Richards and Widdowson (1936)

About one sixth of the total of the 6,3 million cultivated acres in Uganda were occupied by grain legumes, of which groundnuts and kidney beans were the most important, followed by cow peas, pigeon peas and field peas. During the 1960s groundnuts were valuable as food crop and cash crop. In the areas with good rainfall they supplemented cooking bananas, sweet potatoes and cassava. In drier parts the chief staple was finger millet. Every district grew legumes and staples in proportion depended on climatic conditions, the quality of the local soils and tribal preferences.

Contrast in protein supply due to different crop/stock combinations:

• Acreages under major food crops in Uganda
  
• Crop yields 1963
  

PDF: Food consumption in Uganda

Cereal production and supplies in East Africa, FAO Rome 1961

PDF: Food supplies and consumption in East Africa_1961

Crops grown in Bugosa, Bukedi and Ankole district in 1960

PDF: Protein-calorie malnutrition in Uganda, II-Busoga District, III-Bukedi District, IV-Bugisu District, V-Ankole district

Food crops and dietary patterns in Kampala, Karamoja and Kigezi in the 1940s and 1950s

Reference: Holmes, E., M. Stanier, et al. (1955). "The serum protein pattern of Africans in Uganda: Relation to diet and malaria." Trans. Roy. Soc. Trop. Med. Hyg. 49: 376.

 

Created by Verena Raschke 2005 / Contact