By Chris Mugasha
Banana farmers in Bushenyi and Sheema districts have reasons to smile following the approval of their banana plantations to benefit from the climate change funds/carbon funds.
The farmers have described the long awaited intervention as timely.
“We have been facing the challenges of climate change especially drought, hailstorm/wind, banana bacterial wilt among others. We are happy that arrangements have been put in place to compensate us for such loses,” said Seria Muhumuza a banana farmer in Bumbeire sub county Bushenyi district.
According to Dr Joseph Bahati a scientist at the Banana Industrial Research and Development Centre (BIRDC) at Nyaruzinga in Bushenyi district, at the COP26, they managed to negotiate and were able to secure a pilot finance of about Sh450million (USD125000) from the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) to support two banana cooperatives out of the 24 cooperatives on issues of climate change. COP or Conference of Parties are the formal meetings of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), tasked with addressing human caused global warming.
Muhumuza said due to the natural disasters which are hitting the banana industry, many farmers have started to shy away from investing in banana plantations to increase productivity.
Muhumuza who is a member of Bumbeire banana farmers cooperative society Ltd was on Wednesday speaking at the launch of Innovative solutions for community resilience to climate change for the Cooperative Insurance at BIRDC at Nyaruzinga in Bushenyi district. Shuuku Banana Farmers Cooperative Society Ltd in Sheema district is another cooperative to benefit.
The fund is intended to see what can be done to address the challenges that climate change has caused in the banana industry.
“It’s our interest that we protect the investment that you have put in your banana plantations and other gardens,” said Jean Eyase of Agriculture and Climate Risk Enterprise (ACRE Africa) adding that, “we want you to use technology to monitor your farms. We are eager to scale up these solutions to more farmers.”
“This initiative is coming at a right time when climate change is an existential threat with farmers struggling to sustain their banana plantations,” said the Bushenyi RDC Robert Atuhairwe.
Atuhairwe however blamed farmers saying, “What is hindering agriculture is as a result of poor methods of farming/agriculture practiced by farmers.”
“You have seen how grasshoppers have failed to come/fall because of climate change which is as a result of degrading the environment,” the RDC said.
Atuhairwe asked farmers to hid to the President Yoweri Museveni message of vacating wetlands and practicing the four acre model which is environmentally friendly.
He applauded the scientists for making a head-way stressing that, “some scientists, when they are added money, they just sit back and relax. If we had many scientists like Muranga Uganda would be at another level of the middle income.”
The Bushenyi district chairman Jaffari Bassajjabalaba said, “As leaders we are always stranded whenever a natural disaster hits. Every calamity, we storm the Prime Minister’s office for relief items and other interventions.”
Bassajjabalaba said by farmers getting mobilized into cooperatives it will help them to respond to some of the catastrophic challenges collectively.
The BIRDC Director General Rev. Prof Florence Muranga said what had affected banana farmers is to find each farmer playing in the plantations as an individual. “But we said we can’t go away. Our farmers were not aggregated. We took up the task and we have shown farmers that technology works.”
Muranga said the entire Bushenyi region qualifies for carbon funds. “The challenges we have faced throughout our research have forced us to have conversations with more partners.”
“We will fight on until the World sees and recognizes banana as a tree and give us carbon funds.” He described banana industry as zero polluter.
“Unlike politicians and economists who make and have policies, we scientists, we have solutions for some of the challenges hindering you,” she boasted.
Muranga described the interventions as among the revolutions they are going to make in the banana industry.
“Banana farmers are like any other investor who should tap from every opportunity that is available for other investors,” she explained.
The district environment officer Vicent Katate said, “It’s good that they have started with farmers and this is a good entry point.” Katate called for a serious follow up of the interventions and trainings.
Activities to be done
The funds are to be used to monitor the impact of climate change through photo based Indence which informs the different interventions to be carried out to mitigate climate change. The interventions may include irrigation, nutrients in the soil, simple and customized agro-forestry among others.
Bahati explained that banana plantations have a big stake because of the big leaf index. “The more green leaves you have the more direct carbon capture from the atmosphere.”
At COP28
“At COP28, we are going to present at 3 panels looking for support to scale up to all the cooperatives and in future we are looking at all banana farmers across the country accessing this carbon fund,” he vowed.
The UNFCCC organizes nations into five groups: African States, Asian States, Eastern Europe, Latin America and the Caribbean, Western Europe and other States which include Australia, Canada, Iceland, New Zealand, Norway, Switzerland and the United States.
It also divides countries in three categories: developed countries, developed countries with special financial responsibilities and developing nations.
