By Joshua Kato
There is more in a banana beyond steaming it and consuming it as food.
According to Asher Wilson Okurut, a banana research scientist at the National Agricultural Research Laboratories (NARL), Kawanda, Wakiso district, one can earn more money from bananas if they add value to various parts.
Here is how to make juice and banana wine.
Juice
The banana fruits are used in the production of drinks like juice and wines
To process banana juice;
-Harvest mature bananas. A 40kg bunch can produce about 15 litres of juice.
-Put them under warm conditions that will enable them to ripen or turn yellow. This takes about five days.
-Peel them and put them in a saucepan or container depending on the number of bananas or a locally fabricated banana press if you can. The press costs about sh500,000 and can process about 60 litres of juice per hour.
-Combine them with either elephant grass or banana leaves and press them until they start producing a concentrated solution. This can take about 15 minutes.
Commercially, a farmer can use a blender to squeeze juice from bananas.
-Add clean water to dilute depending on the sweetness you desire.
-If it is not going to be consumed immediately, the juice should be boiled before storing it in a cool place. In a refrigerator, it can last as long as two weeks.
-Commercially, you can use a pasteuriser for this process. It costs between sh1.2m to sh2m depending on the capacity.
-After pasteurising, the juice is packed in desired packages ranging from 250ml onwards.
Banana wine
Requirements include bananas, clean saucepans, bottles for packaging, airtight containers for the fermenting process, fireplace for boiling the juice.
-Harvest mature bananas and store them in a warm place to ripen.
-Peel the bananas before combining them with elephant grass to extract juice or use a banana juice press to extract juice.
-Boil the juice, pasteurize it and then add yeast.
-Then put it in an airtight container to start the fermentation process.
-Fermentation takes close to four months.
-You can then open the containers and pack the wine in bottles
