Farmers yet to benefit from 18-year-old banana project

In 2005, President Museveni launched the Presidential Initiative on Banana Industrial Development (PIBID) in Nyaruzinga Sub-county, Bushenyi District to, among others, offer rural farmers technical and scientific services. 

The initiative was designed to help small holder matooke farmers in Bushenyi District (now Greater Bushenyi with five districts) to enhance their yields and add value to the raw matooke.

It would also extend outreach and research development opportunities in sustainable banana production, value addition, business and product process development, product quality assurance and safety, and product technology transfer and commercialisation.

But since its official opening, farmers in Bushenyi and those in the neighbouring communities say they have not benefited from the much anticipated project, 18 years later.

Mr Asaph Mugizi, the chairperson of Uganda Banana Producers Cooperative Union, who is also the vice chairperson of Mbarara District Farmers Association, says the factory has not had an impact in terms of improving the banana value chain, leaving farmers frustrated.

“The neighbouring communities in the district where it’s located might be benefiting but other matooke producing districts such as Mbarara, Ntungamo, and Isingiro have not,” he says.

He adds that PIBID has not helped farmers because the prices of matooke have remained low.

“During bumper harvest, a bunch of matooke goes for as low as Shs1,000 and when there is scarcity, it is at Shs15,000 on average. There is no value addition on our matooke,” he says.

The Sheema District production officer, Mr Robertson Musiime, says there are 12 banana cooperatives that have not benefited from PIBID.

“When the factory started, farmers had high expectations in anticipation that their matooke prices would improve. Some farmers cut down their coffee plantations to plant matooke but their efforts were frustrated by the factory owners,” he says.

Ms Grace Birungi, a resident of Katimwe Village, Kyabugimbi Sub-county in Bushenyi District, says the factory had started buying matooke from farmers, but failed to pay them on time.

“They buy according to the market price and they take a long period without paying. Sometimes we sell our matooke elsewhere, like in Kampala at a better price,” she says.

Mr Francis Natukunda, a resident of Rwemirabyo Cell in Bumbaire Sub-county, says he produces matooke on a large scale but he has never benefited from PIBID in terms of training.

“Banana farmers are struggling with where to put their matooke when the factory is lying idle. The factory has not improved farmers’ livelihoods,” he says.

The Mbarara District production officer, Mr Robert Mwesigye, however, says they are mobilising farmers to add value to their matooke by processing wine as they await to benefit from the factory.

“For PIBID, some famers call it a white elephant. As a district, we are mobilising our farmers to form strong banana cooperative societies and support them in value addition like in making banana wine and banana flour,” he says.

Mr Benon Barinda, another matooke farmer from Rweibogo Village, Bugamba Sub-county in Rwampara District, says despite the factory’s presence in Bushenyi, they still sell their produce in the local markets cheaply.

“It has not helped us at all because our matooke are not earning us any money. I heard they want to build another factory in Isingiro. Maybe that one will help us,” he says.

Isingiro District agricultural officer, Mr Patrick Tumwesigye, says since the launch of the project, farmers have never been engaged on how to supply matooke to the factory.

“We expected that programme to spread to banana growing areas but I think it is still in Bushenyi only. We were supposed to have a memorandum of understanding and our farmers were supposed to benefit from that project by taking their bananas there, which has not happened,” he says.

The Isingiro District commercial officer, Mr Patrick Musinguzi, says the government agreed to put up another factory in Isingiro since their farmers have not benefited from PIBID in Bushenyi.

“What I know is that the government offered to build a factory in our district and it is in the process. They have already identified land where the factory will be constructed. People have individually developed themselves in the banana production business,” he says.

Despite many farmers in the region not benefiting from the project, at least 500 farmers under the Nyakyera Area Cooperative Enterprise in Nyakyera and Rukoni sub-counties, Ntungamo District, are currently supplying bananas to the PIBD after signing a memorandum of understanding.

“This is certainly the only thing we know on the project, farmers in Nyakyera signed a memorandum of understanding with them to supply bananas. It has run on a slow pace and we wish it became successful but I think of now not much benefit,” Ms Esther Atwiine, the Ntungamo District agricultural officer, says.

She says the district has a total plantation area of 56,622 hectares with an annual average production of 362,440,000 tonnes of bananas.

Government’s response 

During the annual thanksgiving celebrations at the banana project in Bushenyi in August, the undersecretary in the Ministry of Science Technology and Innovation, Mr Peter Ourien, asked the officials at PIBID to prove their relevance to the community.

“We have had interactions with the President over the future of this very important plant. Behind these interactions have always been complaints from the people in Bushenyi and the wider Bushenyi area, especially the farmers. There is an issue of beneficiation arising out of this plant,” he said then.

He added: “How much of it is reaching out to the local people? In light of this, I want to request that the office of the resident district commissioner and the district leadership find a way to mobilise the farmers into production to supply this important plant. This investment is fully financed and supported by the government.”

Our efforts to get a comment from the executive director of PIBID, Prof Florence Muranga, were futile by press time.

However, during the August thanksgiving, she explained that the project is focusing on full commercialisation, technology transfer to viable communities for primary processing and bakery projects through business incubation, building a global marketing and distribution network, and other areas.

Compiled by Rajab Mukombozi, Perez Rumanzi, Coslin Nakayiira, Milton 
Bandiho & Julius Byamukama