An apple a day keeps the doctor away, so goes the famous adage that has inspired millions as they aspire to maintain healthy lives. In Western Europe, health-cautious masses are known to religiously follow this with the keenness only comparable to a physician at his work.
But Bananas and Apples share a lot in common including the properties of soluble fiber, Vitamins and Calcium. And the realization of this has arguably turned out to be one of Uganda’s biggest sources of inspiration regarding value addition to agricultural produce particularly, Bananas.
“I don’t want to choose between the two but the Banana is gradually replacing the Apple,” declares Doctor Florence Muranga, a Food Scientist who once headed Makerere University’s Department of Food Science.
“Go to Europe, people are appreciating the health properties of Bananas and that’s a positive sign,” adds Dr Florence Muranga.
Only second to India in Banana production, Uganda’s journey towards meaningful exploitation of Bananas begun around 2003 with the establishment of the Presidential Initiative on Banana Industrial Development (PIBID) with Dr Florence Muranga again at the helm.
Seven years down the road, PIBID has not only demonstrated that Uganda, famed for its agriculture friendly climate has the potential of feeding the world but also transforming the livelihoods of numerous farmers through value-addition.
Branding its products as “Tooke” which is Luganda for Banana, PIBID has brought on to our shelves a string of innovative products including baby foods, bread, biscuits, cookies, instant flour all made from systematically dried Bananas. The latter can be mingled to make the traditional Ugandan meal.
That way, PIBID has almost single-handedly revolutionalised the consumption of Bananas in Uganda. As apposed to the traditional ways which included steaming, eating them ripe or even brewing them into alcohol, Ugandans are now able to enjoy a cookie of a piece of Banana bread.
This diversity has also ensured that Bananas and the related products are granted longer shelf lives and the Banana flour can be preserved and transported for longer distances over a longer period of time. Thanks to this innovation, Ugandans overseas are able to have a taste of their home grown Banana delicacy.
It is such mile-stones that make Dr Florence so optimistic of the future that she declares plans to aggressively market Banana products across the region including Kenya where Maize flour is traditionally dominant.
Inevitably, marketing Banana products will involve challenging long held traditions in some countries surely sounds ambitious. How Dr Florence plans on doing this is a secret only well known to her self. But she gives a sneak peak.
“Our target is not the adults because their feeding habits can’t be changed,” she says noting that the young children are the future gold-mine of PIBID’s business because they can be groomed to love Bananas and the related products.
At its field project in the South Western District of Bushenyi, PIBID has along the years managed to transform an ailing District Farm Institute into one of the best agricultural demonstration centres in Uganda.
Indeed, the facility has been at the fore-front of churning out innovative farming technologies including the harnessing by-products which are peels as the main fuel for drying process of the Bananas. The residue is again picked from the bio-digester and put back into the plantation as fertilizer. This particular project recently won PIBID an award from the African Investor Forum as the Boi-fuel project of the year.
“Nothing goes to waste in our chain of production,” boasts Dr Florence saying the project was a deserved winner for the award.
The Boi-fuel model has indeed generated a lot of excitement across the country that PIBID is in final stages of disseminating the technology to the farmers so as to improve production levels.
Yet Dr Florence intimates that this is just the beginning. “We have been focusing on capacity building all these years and we are now set to undertake large-scale commercialization,” she says.
“Our ultimate goal is to facilitate the uptake research in our segment by farmers which will enable constant quality supplies as we take the Banana to the world,” she adds noting that as a personal observation, she has come to the conclusion that people who consume a lot of Bananas are more comparatively tolerant, flexible and peaceful.
Soon, PIBID will be launching a fully-fledged company to promote its “Tooke” products. The company will be based on a cooperative model to ensure inclusiveness of farmers who will be dynamic players in the project. “We will also bring the many food science graduates in the country to enable them become job-creators,” says Dr Florence.
Already, trade collaborators are being identified in the Asia and Europe to market the produce as PIBID expands its reach in vital markets.
Dr Florence says that Ugandan farmers should not be disenfranchised because they will be able to get great value for their produce. “When Ugandan Bananas start selling like hot cake all over the world, we all benefit from the success,” she declares.
