Farmers in northern Uganda are raising concerns over a suspected cassava disease causing roots to rot before harvest, threatening household food supplies and agricultural incomes in Oyam District as communities call for urgent technical support to identify and contain the problem.
The latest reports emerged from Akwac Cell in Oyam Town Council, where farmers and local leaders inspected affected cassava gardens and observed signs of crop damage alongside suspected whitefly infestation. Farmers say prolonged dry spells followed by heavy rainfall have made it difficult to protect their crops, raising fears of further losses if the problem remains unresolved.
According to a report published by Uganda’s Nile Post on October 23, farmer Susan Onguu said changing weather patterns were complicating efforts to safeguard cassava harvests. Belmos Alango, the local council chairperson of Akwac Cell, urged residents to report unusual crop symptoms promptly so agricultural officers could investigate.
However, the precise cause of the latest damage has not been established. Whiteflies can damage cassava plants and transmit viruses, including those responsible for cassava mosaic disease and cassava brown streak disease. The symptoms reported in Akwac require proper diagnosis before a specific disease or treatment can be confirmed.
The concerns come against the background of a longer-running cassava production challenge in Oyam. In March 2025, Uganda Radio Network reported that a disease affecting farmers in the district had persisted since 2023, spreading across several sub-counties and town councils and destroying hundreds of acres of crops.
Farmers previously reported yellowing leaves, drying stems and rotting roots, with some saying their crops deteriorated rapidly after infection. One farmer in Abok Sub-county reported losing an entire two-acre cassava farm. The earlier outbreak also coincided with a sharp decline in reported cassava prices at Oyam Main Market, illustrating the potential consequences of crop losses for farmers’ earnings.
Agricultural officials have previously encouraged farmers to consult extension workers about appropriate planting materials and crop-management practices. Repeated cultivation of the same cassava varieties without adequate crop rotation has also been identified as a possible factor contributing to the persistence of disease in the district.
The potential food-security implications extend beyond individual farms. An Integrated Food Security Phase Classification assessment covering April 2025 to February 2026 estimated that 273,300 people, representing approximately 16 per cent of the population analysed in Uganda’s Lango sub-region, faced high levels of acute food insecurity. The assessment identified erratic rainfall, prolonged dry spells, flooding, pests and crop diseases among the pressures affecting food production and household food access.
Further cassava losses could compound these challenges by reducing the quantity of food available to farming households, weakening incomes from crop sales and potentially affecting supplies in local markets. The extent of any additional impact will depend on how widely the current damage has spread and whether farmers can recover their crops.
The outbreak concerns also highlight the importance of protecting cassava production as Uganda seeks to expand the crop’s commercial potential. Government plans under the proposed Integrated Cassava Industry Development Project include processing facilities in Lira and Gulu, improved drying and processing capacity across the Acholi and Lango sub-regions, and the annual distribution of at least 142,400 bags of certified cassava stem cuttings to smallholder farmers. The project targets annual production of at least 242,080 metric tonnes of fresh cassava roots for processing.
For farmers already facing damage in their gardens, however, longer-term investment plans will not resolve the immediate problem. They need timely field assessments, accurate disease identification, practical pest-management advice and access to suitable, healthy planting materials for future production.
NBF Insight
Oyam’s cassava concerns underline a critical challenge for African agriculture: improving production requires not only expanding cultivated areas and developing processing industries, but also protecting crops from pests, diseases and increasingly unpredictable weather.
Cassava is an important food and income source for millions of people across Africa. When crops deteriorate before harvest, farmers lose both the food they depend on and the revenue they expect from selling surplus produce. These losses can also weaken the supply of raw materials available to processors and other businesses across the value chain.
Uganda’s immediate priority should be to establish the cause and extent of the damage in Akwac, strengthen agricultural extension support, and ensure farmers receive evidence-based advice. Expanding access to healthy planting materials and improving disease surveillance will also help prevent repeated losses.
The proposed investments in cassava processing could create opportunities for farmers and businesses, but their success will depend partly on a reliable supply of healthy roots. Protecting the crop at farm level must therefore remain central to Uganda’s wider ambitions for food security, farmer incomes and cassava-led agribusiness development.
