Banana tissue culture: community nurseries for African farmers

This project was carried out in three countries— Kenya, Uganda, and Burundi—to get disease-free, TC banana plantlets to farmers. Private companies were already producing TC banana plantlets, but there was no channel to distribute them to farmers. The project established community nurseries to receive the in vitro-plantlets, wean them, and harden them (i.e. grow them outside of the flask until the plantlets are big and strong enough to be transplanted to farmers’ fields). Eleven new community nurseries were established in Uganda and Kenya to buy the in-vitro plants, harden them, and sell them to farmers. The most successful community nurseries were the ones near their source of TC plantlets and near their farmer customers. About 1,000 farmers were trained to transplant TC bananas to the field and care for them. Although the banana plants are disease free when removed from the flask, they are not disease resistant, and can become infected. The plantlets need extra care when transplanted (e.g. more water and fertilizer). TC was profitable for farmers who were near an urban market, which allowed them to earn higher prices for their harvested bananas. On the other hand, TC plantlets were not profitable for remote farmers

Effectiveness of learning and experimentation approaches for farmers as a community based strategy for banana xanthomonas wilt management

Banana Xanthomonas wilt (BXW) is a devastating disease for banana and enset in east, central and Horn of Africa since 1968. The disease has spread to all banana growing countries in the region in the last decade, causing yield losses of up to 80 to 100%. Several efforts have been undertaken to develop and implement technologies for BXW management and their effective deployment with varying successes. This paper presents a new participatory approach for managing BXW named Learning and Experimentation Approaches For Farmers (LEAFF) and describes how it was implemented, tested and evaluated among 220 farmers across two agroecological regions, central and South-western Uganda. Results showed that there was a general reduction in the number of infected plants, corresponding to 7% increase in productivity of banana among the LEAFF compared to the non LEAFF participating farmers. The findings suggested that scaling out LEAFF to different parts in the region can significantly contribute to effective and sustainable adoption of BXW management technologies, and in turn, can lead to improved productivity and smallholder farmers’ livelihoods

Economic gain and other losses? Gender relations and matooke production in Western Uganda

Over the past decades cooking-banana (Matooke) has become increasingly important as food and especially as cash crop for farm households in Isingiro district in the western region of Uganda. High urban and regional demand for Matooke and dwindling Matooke productivity in other areas, drove expanded banana production and more intensive mana- gement. We hypothesised that the increased focus on Matooke by households in Isingiro, affected women and men both as individuals and as household members and affected gender norms on what constitutes a good wife or husband. Qualitative data from one community in Isingiro district was generated based on six in-depth Focus Group Discussions (FGDs), eight structured individual interviews and one community profile using the GENNOVATE method. Survey data with Matooke producers in Ishingiro (N = 51), FGDs with produ- cers (3) and key-informant interviews (5) from a Matooke value-chain development project (ENDURE) was used to compliment and triangulate findings. Results show that the rapid expansion of Matooke cultivation has brought economic progress to many households and has markedly changed the physical landscape in the area. Ownership of a Matooke planta- tion is now among the most important criteria for determining male status and Matooke plantations are largely controlled by men. The focus of men on Matooke has made it easier for women to grow annual crops which increases their options of earning cash income. Women’s access to land however is decreasing. Land is firmly in hands of men and with increasing land scarcity, they allocate less land, less often to their wives for cultivation. Women frequently rent land to cultivate but this is also becoming more expensive and less available. Although women spend a lot of time working in banana plantations, sales is exclusively controlled by men. Only women in female-headed households control sales from Matooke plantations, also because permanent cultures such as banana are not accepted on rented land. We conclude among others that the division of labour in Matooke production is highly gendered. Women in male-headed households benefit from increased revenue at household level but are limited in their options to engage in individual income-generating activities

Management of Banana Xanthomonas Wilt: Evidence from impact of adoption of cultural control practices in Uganda

Banana Xanthomonas Wilt (BXW) is an important emerging and non-curable infectious plant pathogen in sub-Saharan Africa that can cause up to 100% yield loss, negatively impacting sustainable access to food and income to more than 100 million banana farmers. This study disentangles adopters into partial and full adopters to investigate the factors that are relevant to sustain the adoption process of BXW control practices and quantifies the impact of adopting the practices. Data from a randomly selected sample of 1200 banana farmers in Uganda where the disease is endemic was used. A multinomial logit model was used to determine the factors affecting adoption of control practices and augmented inverse probability weighting was employed to estimate the impacts of adoption on banana productivity and sales. Results show that training a woman farmer and having diverse sources of information about BXW control practices increased adoption of the control practices and reduced the disease incidences. Farmers who adopted all the recommended control practices achieved significantly the highest values of banana production and sales. We conclude that improving information access through farmers’ preferred communication channels, having women-inclusive trainings, and a combination of cultural practices are effective ways for sustaining adoption of the control practices

User guide to the four-square method for intervening in root, tuber and banana seed systems. RTB User Guide

This guide presents a step-by-step procedure on how to use the four-square method for intervening in root, tuber and banana seed systems. The four-square method is a research tool that supports the generation of evidence on seed systems diversity so as to formulate interventions to conserve varieties and to improve availability, access, and quality of seed forvegetatively propagated crops (VPC). The tool consists of four squares that are drawn on either the ground or on a chart. Varieties of the crop of interest are mapped in each of the four squares based on their abundance i.e., Each square therefore represents either varieties grown by many households on large area, many households on small area, few households on large area or few households on smallarea. The data is collected in a participatory way using focus group discussions (FGDs) guided by questions that are framed according to the objectives of the study. The objectives could include, but no limited to, understanding local crop diversity, understanding the economic potential of crop varieties, setting breeding goals and developing plant breeding programs, determining impacts of seed interventions on crop varieties and monitoring crop variety diversity changes over time. Separate FGDs are often held for men and women to capture gender-specific perceptions. The social characteristics of FGD participants such as their age, marital status, level of education, and main occupation are also collected and used in the analysis. The tool can also be used to study on-going and completed seed system interventions

Understanding the economic impact of BXW and its management practices in East and Central Africa

Banana Xanthomonas wilt (BXW) is a widespread banana disease in East and Central Africa (ECA). It has the ability to cause up to 100% yield loss, severely compromising food security and livelihoods for banana-based farming households. There are no BXW-resistant varieties, and cultural management practices offer the only means of control. However, adoption of these practices by farmers has been lower than expected, mainly because of their high cost and labour-intensiveness. There are also other actors, both in public and private sectors, playing an important role in the disease management and facing different costs related to it. Our literature review reveals that a cost analysis of the banana value chain as a whole is missing. By this we mean consideration of not only farmers, who have to sustain the cost of management practices, but also other stakeholders involved, as national and local governments, research institutions and agricultural extensionists. In this study we identify economic actors involved in the banana value chain together with their costs related to the disease management and propose a cost analysis conceptual framework. Further, we review determinants of adoption of the BXW management practices and finally relate them to the estimates of costs of inaction (losses due to BXW spread). In this way, we present a comprehensive picture of costs of BXW spread vis-a-vis the costs of management practices and indicate possible ways to tip the balance in favour of the disease eradication. Ongoing research needs to carry out ex-post analyses on different costs sustained by the stakeholders of banana value chain, and ex ante analyses to predict future scenarios which represent possible alternatives, depending on whether and how the disease will be managed in the coming years. Those results will better inform decision-makers at national, regional, and international levels and provide support in designing strategies to cope with the BXW spread across the ECA region