Time is not always money: A preliminary study on socially sustainable strategies for banana xanthomonas wilt (BXW) mitigation efforts in Mbarara region, Uganda

Abstract

Following the Ugandan government's announcement in 2016 that banana xanthomonas wilt (BXW) disease was under control, national-level anti-BXW support dwindled to the point of leaving farmers effectively on their own to continue controlling it. This qualitative case study utilizes data from group and individual interviews, as well as observational walkthroughs of plantations, in one of the previously hardest-hit BXW regions of Uganda to explore farmer perceptions, experiences, and compliance around still-mandated anti-BXW change-behaviours in rural Uganda. Analysed through a lens of increased support for the social pillar of sustainability, the findings identified two central themes arising from inadequate or non-existent local farmer support for anti-BXW efforts in the area: (1) a socially timeprohibitive aspect of the change-mandates, and (2) an insufficient or non-existent reach of anti-BXW messaging to farmers. Discussion and recommendations for more socially sustainable pathways for messaging anti-BXW behavior-changes to Ugandan farmers are included.