An Economic Assessment of Banana Genetic Improvement and ...

THE BANANA ECONOMY IN THE LAKE VICTORIA REGIONS 29
Particularly in the Central Region, the
ability of farmers to respond to the major
biotic and abiotic constraints is limited due
to widespread poverty, very limited use of
commercial inputs, and lack of cultivars that
are resistant to pests and diseases. Efforts to
contain the spread and impact of these biotic
pressures on productivity have concentrated
on scaling up dissemination of currently
available best management practices
and of introduced hybrid cultivars with tolerance
to banana weevils, black Sigatoka,
and Fusarium wilt. Introductions of hybrids
into Uganda during the 1990s targeted areas
where pest and disease pressure is relatively
high and yields of farmers’ cultivars were
declining rapidly. In Uganda, preferred endemic
cultivars were also selected for dissemination
through a major program to
promote the use of “clean” planting materials
(planting materials that are free of pests
and diseases). Current research efforts are
primarily directed at breeding cultivars with
resistance to banana bacteria wilt, black
Sigatoka, weevils, and nematodes; and developing
cultural and biological control
techniques for major pests and diseases.
Banana improvement by means of conventional
plant breeding techniques (using natural
pollination by insects or bats, or by
deliberately moving pollen from one of the
male flowers of one clone to female flowers
of another) has proved extremely difficult
(see Chapter 4).
In the major banana-producing areas of
Tanzania, available data also indicate that
production has remained largely stagnant or
declined during the 1990s (MAC 2000;
Nkuba et al. 2003). Major banana-production
constraints faced by farmers in Tanzania
are similar to those faced by farmers in
Uganda and include declining soil fertility,
increased pressure of pests, and poor agronomic
practices. The major pests of bananas
found in Tanzania are banana weevils (Cosmopolites
sordidus), nematodes (various
species), black Sigatoka (Mycosphaerella
fijiensis) and Fusarium wilt (Fusarium
oxysporum cv cubence).
Many banana producers in the Lake
Victoria region of Tanzania are unaware of
good banana-crop husbandry, because those
who migrated to banana-growing areas
often are not banana growers by culture and
are unfamiliar with traditional practices.
Others, who are well aware of practices, are
discouraged by low returns to labor, given
current market prices and the yield levels of
endemic cultivars.
Local Markets
About 90 percent of Uganda’s banana output
is consumed in the domestic market; the
remainder is exported as either fresh or processed
products. The importance of local
demand is illustrated by the fact that Uganda
has the highest per capita annual consumption
of bananas in the world. Most of the
output is consumed as fresh bananas. In the
main banana-producing areas in the west,
recent survey data show that approximately
65 percent of output is consumed on-farm,
while only 35 percent is sold (Chapter 8). In
less productive areas, households supplement
home-produced banana output by consuming
other starchy staples, such as maize,
cassava, and sweet potatoes.
Growers who sell bananas typically sell
them at the farm gate to traders for resale in
urban markets. Future prospects for local
banana markets appear to be good, given
the growing population and upward price
trend in Kampala and other cities. In
Uganda, the main constraint limiting the
profitability of banana marketing is the high
cost of transportation from major suppliers
to Kampala and the risks involved. Transport
costs account for 80 percent of total
marketing costs (NARO 2005). Because of
high costs and wide fluctuations in banana
prices, marketing margins vary widely during
the year (Table 3.1). The distribution of
marketing margins for cooking bananas
shows that brokers and agents earn the highest
margins per bunch of banana sold (about
50 percent of the farm-gate price). Purportedly,
brokers are better organized and strike