Uganda Urged to Make Clean Energy Affordable, Useful for Smallholder Farmers

What the report says

Researchers, government officials and private-sector representatives in Uganda are urging policymakers to ensure that the country’s clean energy transition works for smallholder farmers, not just for large-scale users or urban consumers. According to SoftPower News, the appeal was made in Kampala during the Clean Energy for Development: A Call to Action (CEDCA) Uganda National Policy Conference at Makerere University.

The central message from the meeting was that renewable energy will not fully deliver on its promise unless it is affordable, accessible and practical for rural livelihoods. The participants emphasized that technologies should be designed or adapted to meet the day-to-day needs of farmers, who often face high costs, limited access to infrastructure and weak support systems.

The conference brought together researchers, officials and private-sector actors to discuss how clean energy can support development in Uganda. While the supplied text does not give detailed policy proposals, it indicates that the debate focused on closing the gap between energy innovation and real-world adoption in farming communities.

The issue matters because smallholder farmers make up a large share of Uganda’s agricultural sector, and better access to renewable energy could improve productivity, reduce costs and strengthen resilience. More broadly, the discussion reflects a common challenge in clean energy policy: technologies can advance on paper but still fall short if they are too expensive or difficult to use in the communities they are meant to serve.