Before USAID intervention, banana farming in Zimbabwe was a low-income enterprise. Growers earned less than US$200 per year due to a lack of formal markets and very low yields. Where monthly yields used to be only 30 to 50 kgs of bananas, individuals are now able to produce over 1,000 kgs per month. The region has gone from producing 2,000 tons in 2011 to more than 27,000 tons presently, contributing more than US$7,5 million to the rural economy each year.
More than 600 banana producers who received technical assistance in agriculture techniques that transformed their farming practices and increased their production and incomes. As those farmers passed on their knowledge to others in their community, today, two years after USAID’s project ended, there are now several commercial banana farmers.
The farmers are doing well, considering that Agritex estimates that 684 tons of bananas are marketed from Honde Valley on a weekly basis, with 45 percent of the bananas going through the formal market channels, while 55 percent go through the informal market channels.
Source: chronicle.co.zw
