What is the problem?
Cooking banana is the main staple crop in Uganda 
with a total annual production of four million 
tonnes. It is mainly produced by smallholders who 
depend on it as a source of food (60% of total 
production is auto-consumed) and income (35% is 
sold to rural and urban consumers). However, actors 
along the cooking banana value chain face risks of 
high postharvest losses due to short green life of 
bananas and damage arising from poor postharvest 
handling. The forms in which bananas are handled 
and marketed after harvest promote losses; the 
bananas are transported to markets mainly as 
bunches on bicycles or stacked on trucks and 
unprotected. They are also transported as fingers 
tightly packed in poorly aerated polythene bags 
that build up heat around the bananas in transit. 
The bunches are supplied to retailers operating 
in an open space, where they are subject to loss 
causative agents. Unit prices are determined by 
visual inspection, which is subjective and arbitrary 
and therefore presents risks for offering relatively 
lower prices. Losses due to ripening are also 
associated with production gluts, which are partly 
due to seasonal scheduling of follower sucker 
selection. Gluts cause drastic price reductions and 
lead to surplus production being fed to livestock, 
used as mulch/manure or just disposed off. In 
order to reduce postharvest losses, traders prefer 
varieties with intrinsic longer shelf-life that are less 
susceptible to physical damage and weight loss 
such as Kibuzi. Additionally, smallholder producers 
get the least share of the profits in the banana 
value chain due to a large number of middlemen, 
for example a 40kg bunch sold at UGX 25,000 
($7.14) in Kampala; its farm gate price is UGX 4,000 
($1.14), yet the transport costs for the same bunch 
is UGX 2,000 ($0.57). 
* 1 USD =Uganda shillings 3,500 as at September 2015.
What do we want to achieve?
We want to contribute to reduction of postharvest 
losses through  (a) presentation forms that are 
Actors along the cooking banana value chain suffer high losses due to short shelf life. 
This project aims at testing, validating and promoting product differentiation of cooking 
banana through upgrading storage, transport, and marketing; so as to increase farmers’ 
margins and value added along the chain.  
Increasing shelf-life of cooking banana: Which presentation 
forms offer the best value for farmers, traders and consumers?
2015
October 
RTB-ENDURE: Expanding Utilization through Research
Expanding utilization of roots, tubers and bananas and reducing their postharvest losses 
The CGIAR Research Program on 
Roots, Tubers and Bananas (RTB)       
is a broad alliance led by the 
International Potato Center (CIP) 
jointly with Bioversity International, 
the International Center for Tropical 
Agriculture (CIAT), the International 
Institute for Tropical Agriculture 
(IITA), and CIRAD in collaboration 
with research and development 
partners. Our shared purpose is to 
tap the underutilized potential of 
root, tuber and banana crops for 
improving nutrition and food 
security, increasing incomes and 
fostering greater gender equity, 
especially among the world's poorest 
and most vulnerable populations.
Contacts
Enoch Kikulwe (Bioversity 
International)
e.kikulwe@cgiar.org
Kephas Nowankunda (NaRL)
nowankunda@gmail.com
less susceptible to damage such as clusters and 
/or fingers that are  graded by variety, finger size, 
shape, colour and packed in cushioned (using 
locally available materials) wooden or plastic 
crates before transportation to identified market 
segments coupled with a weight-based price 
determination system to increase transparency; 
(b) promotion of varieties with intrinsic longer 
shelf-life and better postharvest handling 
practices; (c) promotion of sucker staggering for 
evening-out banana production across seasons; 
and (d) linking the different actors along the 
value chain to benefit from the untapped market 
opportunities based on product differentiation.
How are we going to make it happen?
We are using a multi-stakeholder approach where 
actors in the cooking banana value chain and 
other stakeholders have been brought together 
to form thematic groups. The thematic groups 
will spearhead gender responsive technical, 
commercial and institutional innovations. Economic 
feasibility, gender responsiveness and general 
social acceptability of the proposed innovations will 
be assessed and appropriate adjustments effected. 
The project will strengthen the capacities of 
farmers, traders, researchers and extension agents 
in cooking banana pre-and postharvest practices. 
Furthermore, selected value chain actors will 
have their skills strengthened in entrepreneurship 
and agribusiness. Finally, collective marketing of 
selected value chain actors will be developed in 
order to improve the quality and consistency in 
supply of cooking bananas to the domestic and 
export market.
Where are we working and who are we 
working with? 
We are working in Isingiro and Rakai districts in 
western Uganda, but with firm contacts with traders 
in the rural areas and Kampala. The project is led 
by Bioversity International and implemented in 
collaboration with NARO’s National Agricultural 
Research Laboratories (NARL), Makerere University, 
CIRAD, KAIKA International, Uganda Fruits and 
Vegetables Exporters and Producers Association, 
Local Government officials and farmers associations 
in Isingiro and Rakai as well as other private sector 
players. 
What have we achieved so far?
We are supporting farmers’ access to varieties 
with a longer shelf-life through establishment 
of farmer based macro-propagation nurseries in 
Western Uganda. Participating farmers have been 
trained in the macro-propagation techniques 
and maintenance of seed quality. We will further 
demonstrate more methods of field multiplication 
of suckers including nutrition and decapitation 
to give the farmers more usable options. One 
wholesale trader, who purchases banana from 
the project farmers, has started selling protected 
banana bunches (with no/limited postharvest 
damages due to poor transportation) to Kampala 
traders. Postharvest experiments are ongoing using 
varieties that have better postharvest attributes 
and high consumer acceptability. This is done 
to understand the length of storage as well as 
temperature and humidity regimes required for 
proper storage of unpeeled and peeled banana 
(bunches, clusters and fingers).  Sucker staggering 
trials to prolong banana marketing periods have 
also commenced. Through interactions amongst 
the actors in the thematic groups, trade linkages 
are evolving for local and export sales. The thematic 
groups are set to form the basis of a banana 
multi-stakeholder platform that will drive the 
innovation agenda in the future. A market and 
value chain study has been conducted as well as a 
gender analysis baseline study both of which will 
contribute to strengthening the sub-project gender 
strategy. Market trials for improved packaging and 
branding of banana clusters that are sold on weight 
basis have commenced with selected retail outlets.
What’s next?
Shelf-life and economic studies as well as 
willingness-to-pay studies are planned for early 
2016 to pave the way for commercialization of 
the various forms of presentation (like peeled 
bananas). We shall also work with the field based 
stakeholders to develop planting material access 
models suitable for the communities.  We shall 
also finalize and share the gender strategy with all 
our partners to ensure that our research initiatives 
meet the needs of female and male chain actors. 
We also plan to support development of gender 
responsive business plans for selected innovations 
which will guide their commercialization and 
launch to the general public.
A farmer demonstrating to fellow farmers how to uproot a 
macro-propagated plantlet (credit  M. Batte)
Poor postharvest handling practices through loading, 
transporting and marketing cause high postharvest losses 
(credit M. Arikiza)
Expanding utilization of roots, tubers 
and bananas and reducing their 
postharvest losses (RTB-ENDURE)      
is a 3 year project (2014-2016) 
implemented by the CGIAR Research 
Program on Roots, Tubers and 
Bananas (RTB) with funding by the 
European Union and technical 
support of IFAD.
www.rtb.cgiar.org/endure
I n t e r n a t i o n a l