Smallholder banana farmers depend almost entirely on fresh banana for their livelihoods in Uganda. Similarly, other banana value chain (BVC) actors specialize in the trade of the fresh fruit for income and employment. Therefore, improving the efficiency of market access options in Uganda's banana subsector is one way that banana value chain actors can benefit through the sale of their banana products. In order to achieve this, the actors need to be innovative; departing from dependence on the same product and traditional markets/approaches that limit available benefits. This paper is aimed at identifying innovative market access options among the banana value chain actors in Uganda as a basis for projecting the potential. Cross-sectional research design incorporating 240 value chain actors was employed for the study. The major innovative market access options assessed during the study were collective marketing, contract farming, mobile phone platforms, value addition options and supermarkets. The study discovered that innovative market access options such as farmer associations/collective marketing groups, use of mobile phone tools and value addition among banana actors were vital in improving market access but were underutilized. As such, there is need to develop a specific banana value chain development strategic framework in order to tap up innovations among the value chain actors and promote their diffusion across key banana growing districts in Uganda.
Although there is a high dependence on bananas for food and income, the banana subsector remains largely underdeveloped in Uganda. This study aims to assess the enabling environment in the banana subsector by ascertaining and examining the existing policy and legal frameworks for the development of the banana value chain in Uganda. A combination of survey, focus group discussions, key informant interviews and desk review data collection techniques were employed for the study. Analysis of the extant policy framework reveals that despite the absence of a specific policy for the banana subsector, there is a legal institutional framework in operation although only on a limited scale as the responsible institutions are weak. Adequate financing and human capital capacity development are required in order to empower the existing institutions towards promotion of the banana value chain. The paper concludes that a policy specifically geared towards the banana subsector is a prerequisite for a comprehensive strategic plan in the development of the Ugandan banana value chain.
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