Banana Production Trends, Cultivar Diversity, and Tissue Culture Technologies Uptake in Kenya

Abstract

Banana (Musa acuminate L) is the world’s most widely known and distributed fruit and is a great contributor to food security in the developing world. However, many limiting factors affect banana farming, which cut across sociodemographic factors and agronomic and management practices. The current study was carried in three counties, including Kisii, Nyamira, and Embu. The study aimed to assess agronomic practices, banana production practices (main banana cultivars, source of planting materials), market information, and awareness of tissue culture bananas. Sample size was determined using the Snedecor and Cochran formula, and data were collected using structured questionnaires, observation, and face to face interviews from 90 smallholder farmers. Data obtained were analysed using Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) version 22.0, and Microsoft Excel was used to generate tables and graphs. Results indicated that banana production in Kisii, Nyamira, and Embu were limited by several factors including pests and diseases, limited access to quality disease-free planting materials, access to extension services, especially in Kisii and Nyamira, as well as access to agrochemicals. Declining production as well as limited market access also adversely affected production in these regions. Most farmers chose cultivars according to the availability of planting materials, suitability to the region, productivity, as well as market demand. The most predominant cultivar in Kisii and Nyamira was the Ng’ombe which was planted by about 90% and 73.3% of the respondents, respectively. In Embu, the most common cultivar was Israel and was planted by 96% of the respondents. More than 50% of the farmers in Kisii, Nyamira, and Embu cited lack of awareness of tissue-cultured bananas. None of the respondents in the study sites carried out any value addition processes on bananas thus limiting exploitation of a major revenue source. There was low adoption of tissue-cultured banana cultivation with the highest recorded number of respondents growing tissue-cultured banana reported in Embu (36%), followed by Kisii (10%) and lastly Nyamira (3.3%), as well as limited knowledge of tissue culture technology in three counties with 60% of the respondents in Kisii, Nyamira, and Embu indicating limited knowledge of the tissue-cultured banana varieties. This could potentially lead to a decline in production due to the use of potentially diseased planting materials. Creating awareness with the aid of relevant authorities on the potential benefits of utilizing disease-free tissue-cultured bananas and adopting low-cost tissue culture technology will significantly boost banana production in these regions and the country as a whole. The results of this study could be used by relevant stakeholders to increase banana productivity in the study areas.

Adoption of banana (Musa spp) production technology among small-scale farmers in Embu West Sub-County, Kenya

“…Bananas are mainly consumed domestically, with an annual per capita consumption of 220-460 Kg, providing more than 25percent of the total calories consumed (FAOSTAT, 2018). Despite the importance of the crop and availability of suitable producing areas, Kenya has been experiencing low banana production as a result of pests and diseases, poor agronomic practices, and low access to clean and affordable planting materials (Wahome, Maingi, Ombori, Kimiti, & Njeru, 2021).…”

“…According to Wahome et al (2021), the most important factors affecting banana production are labour and performance of agronomic management practices which include the use of quality planting materials, appropriate use of fertilizers, mulch and manure. One of the main recommended technologies is the use of tissue culture bananas whose adoption is less than 7% in Kenya and significantly lower in Uganda and Burundi (Warinda, Nyariki, Wambua, Muasya, & Hanjra, 2020).…”

“…Tissue culture banana plantlets require appropriate handling and management practices to optimize their benefits. Consequently, this additional requirement and the relatively high cost of tissue culture bananas plantlets (US$ 1.20 -2.00) pose an extra adoption challenge to the Kenyan farmers (Wahome et al, 2021).…”

Spatio-temporal change of selected soil physico-chemical properties in grevillea-banana agroforestry systems

“…Small-scale farmers in Africa produce the majority of beer and cooking bananas, as well as plantains, for both home consumption and market [ 1 , 2 ]. In Kenya for instance, banana cultivation is carried out by approximately 390,000 smallholder farmers on an average acreage of 0.21 ha in subsistence setups [ 3 ] and the annual production of the crop was estimated at 1,414,176 Mg in 2018 [ 4 ]. In subsistence systems, banana and plantains are cultivated alongside a diverse range of food crops such as roots and tubers, vegetables, legumes, grains, coffee and cocoa, fruit and agroforestry trees [ 5 ].…”

Interactions between soil additives and a variety of naturally occurring nematode-demolishing fungi in banana fields of Meru and Embu Counties, Kenya

“…Giant Cavendish, Apple (Sweet Banana), Valery, Uganda Green (for use in cooking), and Red Banana (used primarily in baking) are the most desirable export kinds (Mburugu 2013). Bananas are mostly grown in Kenya's Central, Eastern, Western, Nyanza, and Coast provinces (Ministry of Agriculture 2008; Kabunga et al 2012;Mwombe et al 2013;Karienye and Kamiri 2020;Kirimi et al 2021;Wahome et al 2021). Recently, coffee fields in the East and Central have given way to banana plantations (Muchui et al 2013).…”