banana

This factsheet discusses the Kiziba seedbank in Uganda, established in June 2010. The seedbank was part of a project to improve the productivity and resilience of seeds for farmers through enhanced use of crop varietal diversity, focusing on common bean and banana. The project aimed to fill the gap in seed diversity and good seed quality. The project built on the intraspecific diversity that was available on farm to reduce the pressure of pests and diseases, and on farmers’ knowledge to develop new low-cost and sustainable methods and management practices to increase diversity. »

This article in the Canadian Journal of Plant Pathology highlights an important challenge that is threatening agriculture in Africa: the difficulty in collecting timely data on disease spread and effectiveness of on-farm control methods. This study served as a case study for assessing the viability of a participatory GIS (Geographic Information System) to enable a plant diagnostics network with fieldworkers. »

This article reveals important relations and gradients between soil fertility parameters and its corresponding environment along the slope of the Mt. Elgon in Uganda and Kenya. Mt Elgon is a volcanic mountain and is one of the most productive agricultural regions, dominated by coffee an banana cultivation. »

The Practice Briefs by The Global Alliance for Climate-Smart Agriculture (GACSA) intend to provide practical operational information on climate-smart agricultural practices. This practice brief (PDF) focuses on Coffee-Banana Intercropping (CBI) to address all 3 pillars of CSA in a multifaceted way. »

This study highlights the major practices and strategies deployed by pig farmers in response to feeding constraints in Uganda. While there is potential for the use of sweet potato and other root tubers as pig feed in the smallholder pig farming systems, their use is limited due to the lack of knowledge. »

This blog post by Oxfam highlights the role of supermarket chains, especially discount retailers, on food prices. It is stated that German supermarket chains are partly responsible for substantially undercutting the legal minimum price for bananas in countries such as Ecuador, which has dire consequences for small agricultural producers and plantation workers. »