A new banana value addition factory recently launched by President Museveni in Bushenyi, in Western Uganda, is set to provide a ready market for over 400 farmers.
Sources say their economic status will substantially improve. Uganda is one of the top five biggest banana producers in the world.
The Ush68 billion (about $25 million) factory is a brainchild of the Presidential Initiative on Banana Industrial Development (PIBID).
It is a government funded project under the stewardship of Rev. Prof. Florence Isabirye Muranga, a scientist.
“We have a strategic measure in place like equipping farmers with better production skills through demonstrations and we envisage having an extension arm of Tooke-Cooperatives and strengthening technical input by liaising with different knowledge generating institutions,” she said.
The project has set up a Technology Business Incubator that adds value to banana plantain also known locally as matooke.
The Bushenyi district chairperson Willis Bashaba said the factory will provide employment and technology transfer to people.
He said with the factory in place, people will start looking at farming as a serious business.
Prof. Muranga said they are working with farmers through cooperatives to empower them. She said they are being provided with a ready market and better farming skills.
“Together with these cooperatives, they are going to establish Community Processing Units in Sheema, Mitooma, Rubirizi and Buhweju districts to help farmers to process matooke before they are taken to the factory.
“We believe that PIBID is going to contribute enormously in tackling the unemployment challenge. Apart from the Tooke flour production, there other sectors in the industry like a bakery and a confectionary unit, which will also offer training and incubation opportunities,” she said.
She said farmer’s cooperatives need financing to be able to purchase these processing units because value addition is critical for Uganda’s agricultural sector to improve.
She said farmers also need access to technology, training, improved infrastructure and empowerment through farmer’s associations.
She said with the establishment of the Technology Business Incubator, a firm foundation has been set.
“We are also looking for youth who are engaged in baking at a rudimentary level and we want to partner with them to identify areas for support in starting baking enterprises. Food science graduates from Ugandan universities are also being targeted in the hope that partnerships can be formed to establish small scale you run food enterprises,” Prof. Muranga said.
Charles Kitamirike, the extension officer in charge of community processing units at PIBID, said at full capacity the factory consumes 10 tonnes of fresh bananas.
Kitamirike said 10 kilogramme of fresh bananas produces about 1kg of banana flour when dried and processed.
The factory buys banana from farmers in kilograms through the cooperatives at Ush460 per 1kg which according to him is a better deal than the prevailing market price.
Source: All Africa