Kagera to commercialise banana farming

KAGERA: KAGERA Regional Commissioner (RC), Fatma Mwassa has urged farmers in the region to commercialise banana farming, saying it has potential to create employment, boost income and enhance food security for smallholder farmers across the country if productivity is enhanced.

Plans were being finalised to construct a modern market hub to commercialise banana as a potential cash crop in efforts to improve the region’s economy and employment opportunities, she said.

She highlighted the initiative as a response to long-standing farmer complaints about market reliability. “Many farmers in Kagera region were producing bananas, especially FHIA varieties but lacked reliable market. This initiative aims to address the gap by constructing a market, it will also create employment opportunities for young people, she said.”

“Kagera region is a hub in the Great Lakes Region where investors could benefit by exploiting abundant resources, including agriculture and livestock sectors. The region also has many untapped valleys suitable for irrigation schemes. The government is ready to support them,” she said.

Equally, she encouraged young people countrywide to invest in the agricultural sector for their economic empowerment.

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Bananas are a staple food crop for about 2.9 million people in Kagera Region. Farmers also derive cash income from selling banana bunches and products such as local banana brew within and outside the region.

It is estimated that over 95 per cent of households in the region are engaged in small-scale agriculture, with banana, beans and coffee being the primary agricultural activities.

Banana-coffee based farming systems in Kagera Region have developed over the past millennium and fertile farming systems ensured the food supply of the local population.

Speaking during the closing of the World Food Day commemorations held in Bukoba Municipal on Wednesday, Deputy Minister for Agriculture, David Silinde explained that Tanzania had secured reliable markets for bananas in several countries, including China, Pakistan and Brazil.

Equally, he said the government had also increased the budget for the Tanzania Irrigation Commission (TIC) from 44bn/- during 2023/24 financial year to 408bn/- during 2024/25.

Improving the productivity and profitability of smallholder farmers is viewed as an important component of attempts to improve and develop agriculture in Tanzania, as well as to contribute to the reduction of poverty.

In Tanzania, production of bananas hit a record of 3,407 metric tonnes in 2018/2019 season. There was minimal growth in comparison to the preceding season, when 3,396 metric tonnes of bananas were produced.

Banana is part of the staple diet in Tanzania and one of the ten main food crops in the country. In Tanzania, most of the bananas (over 70 per cent) are grown in Kagera, Kilimanjaro and Mbeya regions.

Other regions producing a significant of bananas are Morogoro, Kigoma, Mara, Arusha, Manyara, Ruvuma, Tanga and Coast.

The global export value of the banana trade was estimated to be 8.9 billion US dollar before the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic, with a retail value standing between 20 billion US dollar and 25 billion US dollar annually.

And at 8.9 billion US dollar, bananas grown for export are only a fraction of the 44.1 billion US dollar in annual banana and plantain production- in fact, bananas are the fourth-most valuable global crop after rice, wheat and milk.

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Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO)‘s data shows that nearly nine-tenths of the world’s bananas are eaten in poor countries, where at least 400 million people rely on them for 15 to 27 per cent of their daily calories.

Agriculture has long been perceived as the back bone of Tanzania’s economy. Whilst its contribution to GDP suggests figures of 25-45 per cent, depending on the source, more than 80 per cent of Tanzania population continues to depend on agriculture as a whole or part of their livelihoods.

Agricultural development is seen by many as a key driver to effective poverty reduction. Since independence, the drive to commercialise and improve the productivity of agriculture has been significant, and this is no difference in the government initiative on agriculture, Kilimo Kwanza.