Banana mooted as Top Crop in Africa - PART 1 of 5 | Voice of America - English
    /*-->*/  /*-->*/  /*-->*/ For the first time, an assortment of role players in Africa's banana industry have banded together to radically transform the way the crop is produced on the continent. Farmers, buyers, donors, trade officials and scientists ? among others ? are trying to improve production methods and to eventually link smallholder banana producers to regional and global markets. These outlets represent billions of dollars each year in banana purchases, and could provide a boon to some of Africa's poorest food producers.
"Wecan't underestimate the importance of the banana to Africa. What rice is forChina and potatoes is for America, that's what banana is for some countries inAfrica," says Thomas Dubois, a Belgian scientist with the Consultative Group onInternational Agricultural Research. Dr. Fen Beed, a plantpathologist specializing in diseases afflicting banana crops for the InternationalInstitute of Tropical Agriculture, adds, "Bananas are part of the agricultural and culturallandscape of Africa?. Bananas have been in Africa for over two thousand yearsnow ? much longer than more recognized crops such as maize or cassava." BothDubois and Beed have taken a keen interest in Africa's banana sector sincebeing based in Uganda's capital, Kampala. The East African country is theworld's second largest banana producer, after India, harvesting 10 million tonsannually with an estimated value of US$1.7 billion. Sub-SaharanAfrica produces 30 million tons of bananas, which provide food for about 100million people and account for 35 percent of global banana and plantainproduction. "InAfrica, banana in some form is an essential staple crop for many countries,"says Beed. "For some countries?. such as Rwanda and Burundi, also Congo andUganda, it is the only staple crop. So it's an extremely important crop." Recentstudies have found that the expansion of small-scale banana production in certaincountries like Rwanda wherebananas make up 80 percent of people's diets has helped to save Africans from starving in thewake of rising food prices. Yet,despite the banana's obvious importance to Africa, agricultural scientists andresearch organizations say continental and international authorities continueto neglect its development. Mostly,Africans boil and mash green bananas and plantains, with their firm and starchyflesh, into life-sustaining porridge that's often eaten as a belly-fillingaccompaniment to much more expensive meat. The way banana is eaten in Africa isa far cry from the consumption of the soft yellow fruit as a tasty snack orcondiment for pudding in places like England and America. Plantains,also members of the banana family, are roasted or deep-fried across tropicalAfrica. Beedsays organizations such as his have chosen to focus on the banana as a means toboost Africa's development, specifically because the crop in its various formsis so widespread across the continent. "Likethe Great Lakes region, all over Central and East Africa and Uganda inparticular, but also Burundi, parts of Tanzania, Kenya and eastern DRC(Democratic Republic of Congo). And then also we have the plantains in WestAfrica, in particular countries like Ghana and Cote d'Ivoire?. Down in SouthAfrica there's commercial production of banana as well, which is the dessertbanana." Duboissays banana is "engrained in the fabric" of Africa. "Butup to now, this crop has been seen only as a subsistence crop, to support foodproduction for large chunks of populations. It hasn't been seen as a crop thatcould generate income from exports. We want more to be done to expand thecontinent's banana industries, because the crop is so important to Africaneconomies and to the continent as a whole," the scientist emphasizes. Beedagrees that the banana's potential is largely unrealized. "We'rereally working towards trying to make bananas an engine of economicdevelopment?. We're not actually trying to be extremely innovative in terms oftrying to produce a new crop and test to see what its potential is; we'retrying to maximize the potential of something that already exists," heexplains. But,adds Beed, the banana cannot be a trigger for growth unless the planners of theproject "involve all the different practitioners from the field, through to themarket, through to trade regulators, to processors. Then also the agriculturalresearch centers that are based all over Africa, and the international centersthat focus on global agriculture, and also universities from all over theworld, and governments too." Buthe's quick to stress that "number one" in the minds of people planning newstrategies for African banana production are the farmers themselves, those whoactually grow the food. "Whatwe also did was include people who were innovative, entrepreneurial farmers andprocessors. So people who were turning, for example, the boiling banana intoflour that could then be re-hydrated and turned into a product that isobviously not perishable, so it can be transported easily," Beed says. "Thisenables (much better) market access because you're not transporting bulkybananas which have a very high weight." Heexplains that such an innovation would negate the high fuel prices experiencedin much of Africa ? a cost that currently makes transport of heavy bananas"prohibitively expensive" for most African farmers and also contributes towardssoaring food prices. "Soprocessing is useful to reduce costs at the source, on the farm. The processedbanana products can be brought to a centralized location close to production,then processed, then introduced to the market when the price is right," Beedstates. Hesays many opportunities exist for African growers to make a lot more money fromproducts manufactured from banana ? such as mats, handbags, wine and fruitjuice ? that could ultimately be exported around the globe. "That'sone of our aims, to investigate what those opportunities are, to try andprioritize them, and to try and make sure that production is linked to themarkets; otherwise there'll be no sustainable system for juice, for example.The market will be identified, but production will fail, interest will fadeamongst consumers, and so on." Beedsays there are "plenty of people doing good work" to improve banana productionin Africa, but that "little" information about advances that could potentially"revolutionize" smallholder farmers' lives ever reaches them. Most of thecontinent's banana growers live in very isolated regions, far from theassistance rendered by international and local agricultural organizations. "There'sa lot of people doing good experiments and making advancements with theirnational research programs, and who understand the key aspects of how a bananagrows and how it develops disease," the scientist continues. "(But) it's notavailable to the farmers exactly how this information can impact upon them andhow they can use this in terms of improved practices to maximize theirproduction." Headds, "Actually, currently there's a gap between science and practice?. It'sharming the farmers." For the first time, though, Beed and his colleagues arecooperating to attempt to bridge this gap. They're holding meetings with bananafarmers and other interested parties ? such as government representatives ? across Africa to try todraw up a plan to boost production. "A lot's being done at the moment to reach as manyfarmers in Africa as possible ? especially with information that could helpthem to protect their crops from disease outbreaks. But we must improvecommunication efforts," he acknowledges. In recent meetings with farmers, he says, it's the growersand producers themselves who've been among the "most vocal? and they were veryinnovative. We need that sort of level of enthusiasm and idea generation to bespread to all of the farmers, so that the potential for the banana can berealized." Beed says farmers are very happy at finally beingasked to make decisions about plans that, after all, greatly affect them.