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Uganda: Manafwa Farmers to Reap Big From Banana Production
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The Monitor (Kampala)
14 May 2008
Posted to the web 14 May 2008
David Mafabi
Kampala
Modern methods of farming to increase production from small pieces of land in Manafwa District have been introduced to the farmers through the National Agricultural Advisory Services.
Naads coordinator, Patrick Natanga says the target is to help small scale farmers to fight poverty at households using modern farming methods for farmers with land as little as an acre.
In a small plot of land, farmers can now get healthy bunches of Matooke worth Shs15,000 each. Mr Natanga, who is pioneering the programme in Manafwa with a few farmers, says the target is to transform subsistence farming in the small plots of land into commercial farming with maximum yields and make farmers treat farming as a business.
"We hope that modern methods of farming will go a long way to improve matooke productivity on the small plots of land and help farmers in the fight against poverty at households," Mr Natanga said. He revealed that one model farmer, Ms Jennifer Wasieba has already made a fortune in banana production when she adopted modern methods of farming and changed from production for subsistence to production for commerce in Bugobero Sub-county. Matooke is the staple food for the entire Bugisu region (Manafwa, Sironko, Mbale and Bududa districts) and one of the most common food crops in Uganda, unfortunately because it is grown traditionally on small scale, it is mostly consumed locally.
Mr Natanga says although agricultural records indicate that in 1999 and 2000 about six million tonnes of matooke was produced on about 1,000,000 hectares of land, most of it was consumed locally.
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The chairman LCV, Mr Charles Walimbwa says to lead by example his councillors would be required to start a model banana plantation in each of their homes.
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