Early Evidence on Household Food Security and Livelihood Changes Associated with an In-Kind Agricultural Microcredit Programme in Rural Uganda

Abstract

Food insecurity remains a major global development challenge across sub-Saharan Africa. While conventional cash microcredit yields mixed socio-economic outcomes, this study evaluates an innovative, progressive in-kind agricultural microcredit programme as a sustainable development tool in rural Uganda. Employing an observational design, we compare agribusiness microcredit recipients with a training-phase cohort across 2022 baseline and 2025 follow-up rounds. The evaluation integrates the Months of Adequate Household Food Provisioning (MAHFP) indicator with qualitative livelihood assessments to examine self-reported changes perceived by participants in relation to economic, food-related, and personal or social dimensions. Cross-sectionally, microcredit recipients exhibited significantly higher MAHFP scores (8.17 vs. 6.86) and experienced less severe seasonal food stress. Longitudinally, the intervention is associated with a potential buffering pattern against deteriorating food security rather than driving rapid income growth. Although direct financial returns were modest and largely absorbed by rigid expenses like school fees, beneficiaries reported marked improvements in dietary quality, reduced reliance on purchased food, and enhanced socio-economic empowerment. These findings highlight that while this integrated credit-plus approach is not a quick fix for chronic food insecurity, it provides preliminary evidence on how integrated credit-plus approaches may support livelihood resilience and food security in vulnerable smallholder settings.