diff --git a/package/ncurses/ncurses.mk b/package/ncurses/ncurses.mk
index 276482490c..9555f1ed66 100644
--- a/package/ncurses/ncurses.mk
+++ b/package/ncurses/ncurses.mk
@@ -127,9 +127,9 @@ endif
 # ncurses breaks with parallel build, but takes quite a while to
 # build single threaded. Work around it similar to how Gentoo does
 define NCURSES_BUILD_CMDS
-	$(MAKE1) -C $(@D) DESTDIR=$(STAGING_DIR) sources
+	$(TARGET_MAKE_ENV) $(MAKE1) -C $(@D) DESTDIR=$(STAGING_DIR) sources
 	rm -rf $(@D)/misc/pc-files
-	$(MAKE) -C $(@D) DESTDIR=$(STAGING_DIR)
+	$(TARGET_MAKE_ENV) $(MAKE) -C $(@D) DESTDIR=$(STAGING_DIR)
 endef
 
 ifneq ($(BR2_STATIC_LIBS),y)