Bananas and Food Security - Bioversity International

Afrique / Africa : F. Bagamba et al.
Table 9. Parameter estimates for banana yield response to selected farmer’s
characteristics.
Variable Equation 1 Equation 2
Constant 18 432.6 18 445.8
(4.153)*** (4.205)***
% of weevil damage -1 522.2 -1 513.3
(-2.821)*** (-2.845)***
Distance to tarmac -279.92 -282.90
(-1.833)* (-1.881)*
Off-farm income 0.004 0.0039
(1.801)* (1.934)*
Farm size 39.877 38.178
(0.850) (0.833)
Farm income 0.0007 0.0007
(1.088) (1.086)
Extension -110.49
(-0.238)
Age of farmer 29.2006 27.6858
(0.430) (0.415)
Education level 67.6409 44.4517
(0.225) (0.158)
Gender of farmer 3 376.72 3 465.51
(1.582) (1.668)
Cattle 304.814 322.336
(0.980) (1.080)
Adjusted R2 0.387 0.402
(***); (**); (*) Significant at 1, 5 and 10 percent level respectively. Figures in parentheses are t values.
Farm income, gender, total farm area, cattle owned, age and educational level of the
farmer showed positive relationships with yield as expected, but not significant.
Conclusions
Banana was found to be the most important crop in Kisekka. Major constraints were the
banana weevil, decline in soil fertility and moisture stress. A number of factors limited
farmers’ability to respond to the different constraints. These included: (1) land pressure;
(2) low farm incomes; (3) large family sizes and dependency ratio; (4) gender imbalance
in terms of access to resources; (5) lack of adequate education and (6) institutional
factors, including limited access to information, roads and markets.
A number of practices, at varying intensities, were employed in banana production by
farmers. Employing grass mulch without supplementing it with manure reduced net
benefit from bananas in the short term. Supplementing mulch with manure and/or coffee
husks was beneficial but still did not improve the benefit/cost ratio. High costs of mulch,
manure and coffee husks, and the high labour demand during application, are some of
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