Banana farmers in Uganda and Tanzania farmers reap a 64% increase in yields worth an extra USD $8.15m a year. This was revealed a recent annual review of the five-year Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation funded ‘Improving banana agronomy practices for small scale farmers in highland banana cropping systems East Africa’ project.
Mzee Ssemambo, a farmer in Isingiro District built a permanent house (in picture) from Banana Farming earnings.
The banana agronomy project was led by the National Agricultural Research Organisation (NARO) and implemented in partnership with the Tanzania Agricultural Research Institute (TARI), Bioversity International, the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA), Makerere University and CABI.
In a report made by the Project Leader, Dr. Jerome Kubiriba reveals that the project led to the 83% increase in household income and livelihoods, 64% increase in yields – from 10mt/ha/year to 19mt/ha/year and 98% of banana farmers in the targeted project areas, improved their way of farming.
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