In this study we assess the potential role that the banana value chain can play in reducing poverty and eliminating hunger among rural and urban poor in Uganda and Tanzania. We provide a comprehensive analysis of banana consumption and productivity in the two countries and we scope the challenges and opportunities for providing more efficient and enhanced production and marketing focusing on smallholder enterprises along the commodity value chain.
To undertake this study we extensively reviewed published data and grey literature from national programs across the EAC and international sources to establish the best available information on supply and demand for bananas. But in view of the limited and unreliable nature of available data we
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In Uganda and Tanzania banana consumption (in total and per capita) is among the highest in the world. They provide 10% of the calorie intake of more than 70 million people. Over 4 million smallholder households cultivate bananas and plantain which provides an annual household income of about US$1,244 – one of the highest smallholder income-generating agricultural commodities in the region. Bananas are fast growing with high biomass yield. They are popular and versatile and can be processed into food products, beverages (soft and alcoholic), snacks, feed, industrial spirits, crafts, and medicines. As food, some varieties are sweet and tasty for desserts while plantains can be cooked or roasted. Studies show that bananas produce the cheapest carbohydrate. Bananas grow in a wide range of environments and farming systems including pure stands, intercropping, and livestock/crop farming systems. They fruit all-year-round, which puts them above other crops as a food and income security crop.
Banana plants make an important contribution to environmental conservation – it is a perennial crop whose roots and broad leaves help to maintain soil structure and provide protective soil cover throughout the year. All these factors position bananas as a key resource. By developing the banana value chains, a number of sustainable and reliable income generating activities can also be supported. In Uganda annual banana production is about 10 million MT. Some
John Soluri 's Banana Cultures: Agriculture, Consumption and Environmental Change in Honduras and the United States, (Which for spatial and repetitive purposes, I will refer to as Banana Cultures for the remainder of the paper), introduces the reader to a world of corporate greed, consumption, and environmental change using the history of the common, everyday fruit, the banana. He explores the various political occurrences, health problems, and changes in mass media through the rise of the consumption of the banana in the United States, and around the globe.
We eat bananas almost every day; however, most of us do not really know where these fruits come from. In Banana Cultures, John Soluri focuses on the relationship between banana production in Honduras, especially in the North Coast between roughly 1870 and 1975, and banana consumption in the U. S.. He focuses on growing, protecting, transporting, and mass marketing of bananas. John Soluri integrates Agroecology, anthropology, political economy, and history in order to trace the symbolic growth of the banana industry. The author admits that his work is highly interdisciplinary, as a desirable trait in the academic world. The study incorporates a wide range of sources, including manuscript census data from Honduras, fruit company records, published scientific records, Honduran and U.S government correspondence, oral testimonies, and ephemera from U.S mass culture. Throughout his work, he combines elements of geography, biology, social history, foreign affairs, and environmental history. Soluri also looks at labor practices and worker’s lives, changing gender roles on the banana plantations, and the effects of pesticides in the Honduran environment and people. His central argument is that United States consumption of bananas causes major social, political, and environmental change in Honduras. In addition, he looks at the banana pathogens, the ways the United States treated these fungal diseases, and the terribly detrimental effects these new treatments had on the farmers on
The Brazilian acai berry has been a food staple for low income families for years and a cultural symbol for generations. This berry is vital in Brazil, where it is farmed and, until recently had a relatively small market. However, after an Oprah interview the demand for acai has become an international affair. The rising demand has created a free market; however the once inexpensive food staple has become too expensive for the low income families. This report will analyse the current markets advantages and disadvantages, followed by two possible government intervention models. The examined interventions will be export tariff and price ceiling.
Banana is a commodity that is widely used worldwide. Bananas are neither too extravagant, nor too expensive meaning that anyone and any level of socio-economic status can purchase them, from the very poor to the very wealthy. Bananas can be found at any brand name store, farmers market, or flea market. Bananas are commodities that are highly valued, traded, and desired. The success of the banana can be attributed to the fact that it can be grown and harvested all year long in different parts of the world. The success lies in the mass production, distribution and consumption of these goods. However, there is an ugly reality people are exploited, countries and people are complete dependent economically on bananas, and countries and terrain are destroyed by those corporations that benefit the most from the distribution of bananas.
Food is a necessary part of ever individual’s daily life. Without food, the body cannot function properly, resulting in poor health, exhaustion, and even death by starvation. Therefore, food insecurity continues to be an international global epidemic. The journal article by Harrigan suggests that the citizens of the Sub-Saharan African country of Malawia are in further poverty due to their lack of food and agricultural resources. The newspaper article from the Guardian tells the real life story of African citizens struggling to farm and find food due to the crop shortages that have spanned Africa for the past two years. This is a current global issue, and the journal and news article prove that there is much to be done in order to help restore
The soil used for farming in the savannas is becoming increasingly nutrient poor and acidic. Grain acts as both the main source of income and food, but the crop yield continues to lessen, because of the depreciating soil quality. Therefore, the crops need to change in order to replenish the soil and increase crop production. Also, by only growing a few crops and shipping the majority of their harvest, those
By 1993, the Banana Empire ceased to exist due to Panama Disease, ongoing labour issues, the rise of new competition and the increased assertiveness of host country governments all contributed to the growing intricacy of the industry. Nowadays, the modern banana farmer has been exposed to many pesticides, which have led to adverse health conditions for the majority of workers but working conditions and wages are on the rise currently. The introduction of fair trade bananas in 2004 was fundamental in bettering the working conditions for farmers and labourers.
Madagascar is a country plagued by food insecurity. This means they are without reliable access to a sufficient quantity of affordable nutritious food. This problem is most apparent in their agricultural population. In order to improve food security their needs to be changes made to provide a sufficient food supply and reduce poverty in this growing population. Their society depends on producing the most food and or profit from their limited amount of land that is arable. One way to help this dilemma they face is with, Improved planting methods and usage of nonfood biomass or their exported products to produce biofuel. This in turn could be used to increase the total amount of food available. This can also provide food security to the agricultural sector where extreme poverty is most apparent.
The author of the book, “The Fate of the Fruit that Changed the World” (2008), Dan Koeppel, who is a famous journalist describes in a fascinating way banana’s cultural importance, threats associated with the crops of banana in the future and banana’ history. Banana is a very delicious fruit and is eaten all over the world. Banana is one of the world’s fourth largest harvests in the world. Dole and Chiquita are eminent American based distributors and producers of banana. They are claiming to produce the banana on low price. In this book, Koeppel discusses the risks associated to the plantation of banana around the world. He also discusses the fact that due to blight, the plantation of banana is destroyed (Koeppel, 2008). He points out that the farmers and the producers have no insight at all regarding this matter (Koeppel, 2008).
A perpetual race to the bottom for the lowest prices has made the banana industry today synonymous with global issues such as agrochemical abuse, pollution, forest depletion, unethical employment standards, gender inequality and even political corruption (Cohen). How can a harmless fruit be the symbol for all these global issues? Cohen in “Global issues for Breakfast” suggests that bananas are now such a common, inexpensive western commodity that, “we often forget where they come from and how they got here.” Although it may be easy to only blame corporations like Dole and Chiquita for the state of the banana industry, ultimately, consumers are responsible to make ethical purchases of fair trade and organic bananas because of the environmental and humanitarian costs associated with the traditional
“Historically, the banana trade symbolized economic imperialism, injustices in the global trade market, and the exploitation of agriculture-dependent third-world countries”(2). However, they remain to be one of the most profitable items in grocery stores. Making bananas crucial to economic and global food stability for countries all over the world. They are the third largest staple crop, coming only after wheat and coffee. Since bananas are such a sought after fruit, many companies have gone to extensive lengths in the to fight for a share of the market. Chiquita Brands International was one of the pioneer companies to try and globalize bananas. They took a risk and made some very critical mistakes along the way.
While globalization is a relatively new phenomenon in theory, but not necessarily in history, as of 2009 it has created transnational corporations linked to government, international economic institutions, and non-government organizations. (Steger 67). With this definition bananas are a textbook example of the globalization of tropical fruit commodities. The transnational corporations of the United States, most notably Chiquita, Dole and Del Monte, have been linked to the governments of Latin and South America, the World Trade Organization, and the “organic” fruit movement. By tracing the path from banana plantations to supermarket it becomes clear how the “morals” of capitalism have permeated
Although Tanzania is a very poor country and is dependent on foreign aid, 75% of the population is involved in farming and the country is the leading producer of sisal and cloves. Most of the production of cloves worldwide come from Zanzibar and Pemba Islands. Aside from sisal and cloves, Tanzania also exported coffee, cotton, tobacco, copra, tea, and peppers. Mining
Fyffes procures its products worldwide and is one of the leading distributors of southern hemisphere fresh produce in Europe, in particular fresh produce sourced from South Africa and South America. The most common themes arising from the top managers so far involved the need to foster relationships among the SBUs and work with each other to reduce costs (Geoff Percival, 2012). It is critical for the relationship between the suppliers (Other region markets) and the distributors (UK, Ireland and EU). The four SBUs work together for the fresh fruits supplying and selling, the company launched its worldoffruit.com web site and subsidiary, offering Internet-based business-to-business fruits and vegetables sourcing and information supporting the company's operations are its network of 100 storage, distribution, ripening, and other facilities, a fleet of 17 company-owned or leased temperature-controlled ships, and its own land-based transportation fleet, it can share and reduce the transport cost. The synergy management of the four SBUs also helps Fyffes add more value to the supply chain and make the delivery more efficient.
This study assessed policy and institutional frameworks impacting on vegetable seed production and distribution systems in Cameroon in order to establish benchmark indicators for successful integration and/or diversification of vegetables into existing cocoa-based farming systems in the humid tropics of Cameroon. Results reveal that official regulations and other policy instruments necessary to boost the vegetable seed sector in Cameroon do exist, but need to be re-formulated into more concrete and implementable actions on the ground. The study identified and characterized two main vegetable seed supply systems namely: the dominant informal system dealing mainly with traditional vegetable species such as Amaranthus spp (amaranth) and the formal seed supply system characterised by mostly by the production and sale of globally important vegetable seed such as Brassica oleracea var. capitata (cabbage). The major constraints observed in the vegetable seed sub-sector include the inadaptability of legal instruments to the vegetable seed sector, absence of effective storage conditions, absence of seed testing facilities, poor knowledge on seed production and processing and the heterogeneity of seeds. Consequently, farmers are obliged to fall back to unimproved seeds to the detriment of agricultural yields.