The agri-food system is the entire interconnected system of activities, actors, and resources involved in producing, processing, distributing, selling, consuming, and disposing of food, extending from farm to fork and beyond to include non-food agricultural products like fibers or biofuels. It encompasses the entire supply chain, including inputs (seeds, fertilizers), farming (crops, livestock), processing, logistics, retail, and waste management, highlighting agriculture's crucial role in economic growth, food security, and sustainability.

Uganda’s agri-food sector holds immense untapped potential — not only to ensure food security, but to become a powerful engine of high-value growth, export competitiveness, and job creation. Yet today, much of the sector remains constrained by fragmented interventions, low productivity, post-harvest losses, limited processing capacity, and weak integration with markets and finance.

The RISE Agri-Food Mission is designed to shift the sector from subsistence and low-value production to system-level, technology-enabled agri-food development. It brings together innovators, farmers, processors, financiers, policymakers, and researchers to co-create scalable, investable solutions across the entire agri-food value chain — from inputs and production to processing, logistics, and markets.

Selected participants will be onboarded into the RISE Agri-Food Pipeline, where national agri-food challenges are translated into validated solutions and structured into investment-ready opportunities. This ensures innovation moves beyond pilots into deployment at scale.

Mission Objective

To mobilize agri-food sector stakeholders around a shared agenda of high-value, technology-enabled, and innovation-driven agri-food development, aligned with Uganda’s food security goals, industrialization ambitions, and the national 10-fold growth strategy.

Key Outcomes of the RISE Agri-Food Mission

Shared National Vision for High-Tech Agri-Food Development

A credible, investable vision for modern agri-food systems that deliver food security, value addition, export growth, and rural prosperity.

Priority Agri-Food Opportunity Pipeline

Identification and prioritization of system-level agri-food opportunities — from precision farming and climate-smart inputs to processing, cold chains, and export-ready value chains.

Early Financier Alignment

Agreement on practical mechanisms for financiers to engage early in shaping, structuring, and co-funding agri-food projects with strong commercial and impact fundamentals.

Indigenous Technology & R&D Focus

Mapping of existing local capabilities and identification of priority areas where local R&D can develop home-grown agri-tech solutions.

Stakeholder Onboarding

Selective onboarding of farmers’ organizations, agri-tech innovators, processors, researchers, policymakers, and capital providers into the RISE Agri-Food ecosystem.