Govt Proposes New Super Regulator for Food and Farm Chemicals

What the report says

Uganda’s Parliament has begun considering a bill that would create a new Food and Agriculture Regulatory Authority to oversee food safety and agricultural chemicals. According to Nile Post, Agriculture Minister Frank Tumwebaze presented the Food and Agriculture Regulatory Authority Bill, 2026 for first reading and said the goal is to bring together oversight that is currently spread across multiple agencies.

The proposed authority would regulate the manufacture, importation, exportation, distribution and supply of agricultural chemicals, and would also handle licensing, inspections, quality control and enforcement against counterfeit inputs. Tumwebaze said the reforms are intended to protect farmers and consumers and to curb unsafe food and fake agro-products that he argued have affected productivity and confidence in exports.

Parliament referred the bill to the Committee on Agriculture, Animal Industry and Fisheries for detailed scrutiny. The Speaker directed the committee to consult stakeholders, including farmers, agro-input dealers, the National Drug Authority, the Uganda National Bureau of Standards and the Ministry of Health, and to report back within 45 days.

The Nile Post report said some MPs welcomed the idea of stronger regulation but warned that a new body should not become another bureaucratic burden or add costs for farmers and businesses. If approved, the authority would become the central regulator for food safety assurance and agricultural chemical standards across the sector.