Bananas
(Musa species) are grown by many subsistence and small-scale
farmers in Kenya. Bananas are grown widely in areas of the country with adequate
rain and occupy over two percent of the country’s total arable land. The
production of this popular crop, a source of food and income to millions of
rural Kenyans, has been on the decline here for the past two decades, as has
been the case elsewhere in Africa. This has consequently threatened food and
income security, and has reduced employment opportunities in areas where the
crop is grown.
A
Host of Limitations
Poor
production has been linked to lack of clean planting materials as well as to
diseases and pests. Most commonly, fungal diseases have contributed to this
scenario. These include Panama disease, caused by Fusarium wilt, and
Black Sigatoka Leaf Spot, caused by Mycosphaerella musicola. Pests most
commonly affecting the banana crops are weevils and nematodes.
On
the other hand, the increase in population has equally affected production by
reducing the available land for production. Decreased efficiency in crop
management and a decline in soil fertility have also been cited to have an
impact on the level of production.
Moreover,
lack of awareness among the farmers of the technology available to improve
yields and control pests and diseases has similarly contributed to decline in
yields.
A
Rescue Mission
It
was after realizing the various limitations facing farmers that, in 1996,
efforts were initiated to establish a project that would improve banana
production in Kenya. This was spearheaded by the International Service for the
Acquisition of Agri-biotech Applications (ISAAA) in collaboration with the Kenya
Agricultural Research Institute (KARI).
According
to Catherine Ngamau, research officer at the ISAAA’s Nairobi-based Africa
Centre, research done in various parts of Kenya revealed that reduction in
banana production was being occasioned by the unavailability of sterile planting
material. “Farmers were continuously using diseased and pest-infected suckers
for banana production and this undermined the crop’s performance,” she
explained.
New
Technology
Ngamau
said that ISAAA identified the tissue culture (TC) technique for banana
propagation after it was recognized for having the greatest potential of
offering a viable solution. The technology was borrowed from South Africa, where
it had been successfully tried. Tissue culture is a form of biotechnology that
refers to the production of plants from very small plant parts (such as the
leaf, lateral bud, and shoot tip) as well as tissues or cells. This allows for
the production of a large number of plants in a shorter time period than that of
traditional methods.
Tissue
cultures do not alter the genetic makeup of an organism; this method is used to
increase crop production and speed up its maturation, explained Ngamau. She
draws a parallel between tissue cultured crops and genetically engineered ones
by pointing out that in genetic engineering, scientists transfer genes from one
organism to another in order to create a new organism that has the desired
characteristics. “Tissue culture technology does not introduce new varieties;
it is a method of propagation,” she stressed.
Working
in partnership with KARI, the Ministry of Agriculture, private institutions, and
the Nairobi-based Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology, they
started identifying farmers groups in banana-producing areas of the country in a
bid to persuade them to adopt the technology.
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“Farmers
were continuously using diseased and pest-infected suckers” says Ngamau
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Under
this partnership, KARI hosted the project, which was dubbed “Biotechnology to
Benefit Small-Scale Banana Producers in Kenya,” while ISAAA was charged with
facilitating it. For easier transfer of the technology, they devised an
integrative and participatory strategy using Farmers Field Schools. This
approach encompassed evaluation of feedback to assess the project’s success.
Farmers
in various parts of the country quickly welcomed the new technology. One of the
pioneer farmers of TC bananas is Karen Ngugi of Maragua district, in Central
Kenya.
Ngugi
says that although she had been growing the Cavendish variety of bananas on her
farm for decades, she opted to test the tissue cultured plantlets of the same
variety after hearing about their qualities from the officers of KARI, who had
visited them in their district during a farmers field day in 1997. “Although
we were initially apprehensive, we gave them a trial and the results were
impressive,” she disclosed. “This is not a seasonal crop, I have been
harvesting continuously every year since I introduced them and I am certain of
doing so for years to come,” she stated.
Superior
Plants
Tissue
cultures do not alter the genetic makeup of an organism; this method is
used to increase crop production and speed up its maturation, explained
Ngamau. |
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Ngugi,
who obtains planting material from KARI, says that she has over 500 plants on
her three-acre farm. “Indigenous bananas, apart from taking almost two years
to mature, require more space and thus much land is required to grow them. Most
of us have small portions of land; thus by growing them we were not optimally
utilizing our land,” she said.
Apart
from being resistant to diseases, Ngugi says that TC bananas mature uniformly
and within a short period of approximately nine months. They are bigger, with an
average weight of 45 kilograms compared to the indigenous ones, which hardly go
beyond 35 kilograms.
“When
there are adequate rains, I sell about 30 banana plants (stems) every two months
at a price of approximately Kshs 200, (US$2.50), an income that enables me to
comfortably take care of my family,” she adds. Indeed, Karen Ngugi is one of
the many banana farmers in Maragua district and elsewhere in the country, most
of them women, whose lives have changed for the better as a result of embracing
the tissue culture biotechnology.
As
a result of their income from banana sales, they have been able to uplift their
socio-economic welfare through paying fees for their children, improving family
nutrition, and engaging in other projects like building water tanks to store
water.
Challenges
Ngugi,
however, says that TC bananas are susceptible to drought, and since a majority
of the farmers cannot afford to irrigate their land, their harvests drop
drastically during the dry season. Another limitation is the price of the
planting materials, which she says costs Kshs 80 (US$1.00) per unit, and
therefore are unavailable to the majority of farmers, most of whom are poor,
given that a farmer requires 500 plants for the banana crop to be economically
viable. Worse still, she points out, is the high cost of fertilizers, which
farmers complain is beyond their reach.
Farmers
in Maragua district, just like their colleagues elsewhere in the country, have
formed self-help groups that work with other stakeholders in trying to surmount
the constraints they face. Far from the problems of obtaining inputs, other
issues tackled include dealing with marketing limitations and improving
opportunities.
In
Maragua, farmers groups belong to an umbrella organization called Highridge
Banana Growers and Marketing Association. The chairman of the association,
Samuel Kamau, states that the association has over 500 members represented by
various farmers’ self-help groups. “We act as a link between the farmers and
other stakeholders such ISAAA and KARI and endeavor to assist farmers to acquire
inputs like fertilizers and address other pressing problems affecting them,”
he says.
The
association, according to Kamau, strives to link farmers with consumers with
assistance from ISAAA, so as to shield them from exploitation from middlemen.
The association also lobbies on behalf of farmers for the government to improve
infrastructure for roads and communication networks in the district to enable
bananas to reach their markets in urban centers timely before they are spoiled,
because they are perishable.
Food
Security and Intercropping
Kamau
notes that since ISAAA and KARI introduced TC bananas in the area, there has
been not only an alleviation of poverty, but also improved food security. He
says that they are working on introducing the vanilla crop, (a tropical climbing
orchid with a long green fleshy stem that sprouts roots and clings to trees
parasitically), which is used as a spice.
He
explains that bananas are suitable for intercropping because they provide soil
stability and shelter for other crops. The chairman of Highridge Banana Growers
and Marketing Association is at the same time optimistic that the introduction
of vanilla cultivation will offer an additional income to banana farmers.
Another
aspect that Kamau attributes to introduction of TC bananas is the emergence of
employment opportunities for those involved in the banana trade in the district.
In
an attempt by ISAAA to tackle challenges facing TC banana farmers in the
country, Catherine Ngamau states that the organization liaises with micro-credit
organizations to give farmers loans to acquire inputs. She notes that the loans
are given both in cash and kind. For instance, farmers may be given planting
material instead of cash.
The
micro-credit organizations also train farmers on how to manage their incomes and
also encourage them to save part of it. ISAAA equally arranges farmer-to-farmer
exchanges, where various issues pertaining to banana production and farming in
general are discussed.
Moreover,
it links farmers to existing lucrative markets for their products in
collaboration with their associations. The organization also trains them on
post- harvest handling of their crop.
To
ensure a wider adoption of biotechnology, the organization trains groups of
farmers who in turn train their colleagues. “Since much can be done through
coordinating with farmers associations, we encourage farmers to join groups, as
this increases their confidence in running their own affairs,” she observed.
The
Future
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The
introduction of TC bananas will help increase employment opportunities
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The
TC banana project initiated by ISAAA and KARI has been remarkably successful
since inception. Owing to this achievement, Nhamau says that they plan to assist
farmers in reaping maximum benefits from their efforts by adding value to their
crops. She says that the first step is to embark on diversification of the uses
of the crops.
The
research officer emphasizes that there is more to the traditional uses of
bananas, which are a staple food for many—consumed once ripe, or cooked in the
case of plantains. Bananas are rich in carbohydrates, vitamin C, and minerals
such as potassium.
The
traditional uses include using them as a source of medicine, and their broad
leaves as plates or food wrappers in steaming or baking food, in addition to
utilization of their fibers in making fabric. She points out that the crop can
be used in the manufacture of confectionery products and juices.
ISAAA
acknowledges that farmers, left on their own, are not able to successfully add
value to their crops, and thus the organization is requesting entrepreneurs and
other stakeholders to come on board and make use of the opportunity.
One
of the organizations that ISAAA will be working with in this line is
FARM-Africa, a Food and Agriculture Research Management organization that works
with small-scale farmers in Kenya, Ethiopia, Tanzania, and South Africa.
Subsequently,
ISAAA, which is a member of African Biotechnology Stakeholders Forum (ABSF), an
organization that represents all biotechnology stakeholders in Africa, has
centers, apart from Kenya, in Uganda, Tanzania, Malawi, and South Africa where
it collaborates with other governmental and non-governmental organizations in
assisting farmers. Given that it targets farmers that are lacking in resources,
the organization plans to establish village laboratories to enable them to
access planting materials conveniently and cheaply.
Such
a move will play a pivotal role in boosting banana production in Africa, which
currently stands at only 30 million tonnes despite the existing huge potential.
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