Making the Most of Banana January 2009
Bananas need babysitters
Finyange Pole: Research Officer
Summary:
A research officer gives some valuable, practical advice on how to give young banana plants the best start in life. This includes planting, weeding, pruning and protecting them against pest attack.
Suggested introduction:
To get a good yield from the field, a farmer needs to follow some basic instructions. Many a time, farmers lose out on their produce because of not knowing what to do and when to do it.
Just as children need care and guidance from their parents, bananas also need that special care to give the desired good, sweet fruit. At a research centre just north of Mombasa, Finyange Pole of the Kenya Agricultural Research Institute, explained to visiting journalist Matongo Maumbi, how farmers can help bananas grow well and produce better fruits. Matongo began with planting, and asked how farmers could give young banana plants the best possible start.
Tape in:
What needs to be done, he has to have...
Tape out:
...complement my meal with a banana.
Closing Announcement:
Finyange Pole with some practical advice for banana farmers on how to give their young plants the best possible start and keep them healthy.
Making the most of it:
Get out on the farm of a respected local banana grower. Ask them to share their tips for growing better bananas.
Further information:
Finyange Pole,
KARI - Mtwapa,
PO Box 16, Mtwapa 80109,
Tel: 254 41 5485842,
Fax: 254 41 5486207,
Email: karimtw@kari.org
Transcript
Pole
What needs to be done, he has to have the manure, the manure ready, just in a heap like the one you are seeing there. And then he has to dig the holes, three by two metres, that is the spacing recommended. And the hole should be two feet wide, two feet long and two feet deep. And then the first one foot of that soil, that is the top soil, will be put aside and then the lower soil, the subsoil will be put aside in a different location. Now we take this top soil because we believe it still contains some nutrients that will be useful to the plant. Then we mix that soil with two debes [A debe is a 20 litre tin] of the decomposed manure, and put back in the hole. Now that is what we use now to plant our banana seedling. Then from there we make sure that it is watered regularly, like three to four times in a week until it establishes. And we usually recommend that it is done during the onset of the long rains, because that is when maybe it will give the boost once it is raining, maybe the farmer will not be required to keep on watering the plant regularly. And they will be assured of getting the plant to take off.
Maumbi
And what does it take to maintain a banana once it has taken off?
Pole
Once it has taken off now you make sure that the field is weed free, it doesn't have weeds. Because if you leave weeds there, they will compete for the little nutrients, just like a human being would like to eat. If you eat then you will require more, the weeds also require the same nutrients, so we have to make sure that the field is weed-free. In those areas where like water is a great problem you can put a mulch of dead grass. You put them along the rows so that you prevent the rate of evapo-transpiration. And make sure that maybe there are no pests or diseases. If you see like a leaf which is showing some signs of disease you cut it and maybe burn it, throw it away so that it does not spread. So if you see one is infected, you either cut it down or you take it away or even bury it so that it doesn't continue affecting the others.
Maumbi
Now here we are standing near a banana, plenty of leaves have been cut off. Is it part of the process that you are explaining that the leaves have to cut off?
Pole
Yeah this is now one of the management processes where we prune. We do prune because as the plant grows the other leaves, the older leaves they dry up, so that is, we need to maintain the orchard clean by cutting the dead leaves also. You cut them and the dead leaves you can use to put a mulch like the way you see. The diseased leaves, if you have livestock - because they are still green, maybe some of them they are still green, you feed them to the animals.
Maumbi
The banana has been planted, a banana is growing, a banana has grown. The actual banana is out like this one, I would say it's still young, the banana itself is still very small, it's a bit greenish, there are some flowers. Now when this stage is on, what should the farmer look out for?
Pole
He should look out for pest damage like damage by wildlife, especially the monkeys. Monkeys can damage these bananas so you have to make sure that you guard them against pets and wildlife, even humans. Some humans steal the banana, so you make sure that you guard them because those who steal do not mind the right maturity stage. They can just harvest them when they are just about to mature, and you have to guard them against such and make sure that you don't damage them unnecessarily so that the quality is, you get the right quality of the banana.
Maumbi
What harvesting strategy would you recommend to maintain maximum value from the bananas?
Pole
Here at the coast we have two types of market preferences. The hotel market, the tourism market doesn't require bananas to really mature fully. Once a banana has matured fully you won't see these, the fingers will have been filled up to an extent that you won't see these lines, the angles. They will be somehow smooth. That is now this one, such type of bananas are liked by the locals because they need quantity not the small thin bananas, they need bigger ones. Now the tourism industry requires the slightly premature bananas so they are being harvested prematurely because they need small slender ones. So those are the market preferences here that people look for. So the farmer can, depending on whatever customer they get, they'll give them those bananas. And the advantage of having banana also to the farmer is that once you harvested the banana, the trunk you can now also use to feed your animal, and they can increase the milk production. And you can use the same, the trunk, that these leaves from the trunk to make some artefacts like the hats, some book covers, pen holders, so many artefacts can be made out of the banana.
Maumbi
How sweet and good are bananas in your personal opinion?
Pole
Bananas are sweet. I love them, especially the desert ones. In fact in most of my meals, I would like to complement my meal with a banana. End of track.
