How banana farming can turn you into a millionaire
May 06, 2009
For Teopista Kataratambi, the owner of Nyamiyaga mixed farm in Nyakayojo Rwampara county, Mbarara district, prosperity has come through growing bananas. It is for this reason that she prefers farming to an office job.
By Fred Turyakira
For Teopista Kataratambi, the owner of Nyamiyaga mixed farm in Nyakayojo Rwampara county, Mbarara district, prosperity has come through growing bananas. It is for this reason that she prefers farming to an office job.
Looking at Kataratambi’s banana plantation, it is hard to believe that she started out on a five-acre piece of land in 1994, producing only food for home consumption.
Before she became a farmer, Kataratambi worked as a secretary at the Association of Professional Accountants in Kampala. She diligently saved part of her meagre earnings to make her dream of farming come true.
In 1994, she retired and took on farming. “I wanted to earn a livelihood of my own and through my own sweat,†she says.
However, she only began commercial farming in 1997, after the Mbarara district farmers’ association sponsored her to attended a three-week course on farm management at the Makerere University Farm, Kabanyoro.
The training changed her attitude towards farming and enabled her to view it as a serious business.
“I started with local matooke species which I improved on later. The business is paying and I now regret the three years I spent working for someone else,†Kataratambi says.
She has a 20-acre banana plantation as her main farming project, as well as five acres on which she grows pineapples, avocado, oranges, guavas, strawberries and pumpkins and rears local chicken as well as a zero-grazing heifer, which enterprises she uses to supplement her income from bananas.
On average, she produces 350 bunches of bananas a month and 20 litres of milk daily. “I earn over sh1m a month from selling bananas. People ignore farming yet it pays more than a salary,†she says.
Kataratambi usually sells a bunch of bananas at sh 6,000 but currently, due to high demand, a bunch is going for sh10,000. She supplies bananas to hotels in Mbarara, while the rest is sold in Kampala. She also makes money from the sale of banana suckers, which she sells to local farmers.
As a member of the Mbarara district farmers association, Kataratambi has gained valuable farming skills that have enabled her to mentor fellow farmers. To this end, the Food and Agriculture Organisation selected her farm as a field school for other farmers to learn the farming technologies she uses.
To boost production on the banana plantation, she has a composite manure pit and also mulches the plantation. She also has a solar dryer which enables her make banana flour.
“This dryer serves many purposes. It dries pineapple and matooke when I want to keep them for food security. In case of food shortage, the flour will get me out of the problem. People should put emphasis on farming and have a culture of preserving food for security in their homes,†Kataratambi advises.
Through farming, Kataratambi and her husband have managed to educate their children, construct a house, install a solar energy power system and purchase a pick-up truck. She also constructed a big water harvest tank with a capacity of 100,000 litres for irrigation during the dry season.
Like any other farmer, however, Kataratambi has to weather several challenges particularly diseases like the Banana Bacterial Wilt disease and natural hazards such as hailstorms and heavy winds which destroy the banana plants.
She appeals to the Government to have an emergency fund for such natural hazards and inspire others to take up farming.
For Teopista Kataratambi, the owner of Nyamiyaga mixed farm in Nyakayojo Rwampara county, Mbarara district, prosperity has come through growing bananas. It is for this reason that she prefers farming to an office job.
Looking at Kataratambi’s banana plantation, it is hard to believe that she started out on a five-acre piece of land in 1994, producing only food for home consumption.
Before she became a farmer, Kataratambi worked as a secretary at the Association of Professional Accountants in Kampala. She diligently saved part of her meagre earnings to make her dream of farming come true.
In 1994, she retired and took on farming. “I wanted to earn a livelihood of my own and through my own sweat,†she says.
However, she only began commercial farming in 1997, after the Mbarara district farmers’ association sponsored her to attended a three-week course on farm management at the Makerere University Farm, Kabanyoro.
The training changed her attitude towards farming and enabled her to view it as a serious business.
“I started with local matooke species which I improved on later. The business is paying and I now regret the three years I spent working for someone else,†Kataratambi says.
She has a 20-acre banana plantation as her main farming project, as well as five acres on which she grows pineapples, avocado, oranges, guavas, strawberries and pumpkins and rears local chicken as well as a zero-grazing heifer, which enterprises she uses to supplement her income from bananas.
On average, she produces 350 bunches of bananas a month and 20 litres of milk daily. “I earn over sh1m a month from selling bananas. People ignore farming yet it pays more than a salary,†she says.
Kataratambi usually sells a bunch of bananas at sh 6,000 but currently, due to high demand, a bunch is going for sh10,000. She supplies bananas to hotels in Mbarara, while the rest is sold in Kampala. She also makes money from the sale of banana suckers, which she sells to local farmers.
As a member of the Mbarara district farmers association, Kataratambi has gained valuable farming skills that have enabled her to mentor fellow farmers. To this end, the Food and Agriculture Organisation selected her farm as a field school for other farmers to learn the farming technologies she uses.
To boost production on the banana plantation, she has a composite manure pit and also mulches the plantation. She also has a solar dryer which enables her make banana flour.
“This dryer serves many purposes. It dries pineapple and matooke when I want to keep them for food security. In case of food shortage, the flour will get me out of the problem. People should put emphasis on farming and have a culture of preserving food for security in their homes,†Kataratambi advises.
Through farming, Kataratambi and her husband have managed to educate their children, construct a house, install a solar energy power system and purchase a pick-up truck. She also constructed a big water harvest tank with a capacity of 100,000 litres for irrigation during the dry season.
Like any other farmer, however, Kataratambi has to weather several challenges particularly diseases like the Banana Bacterial Wilt disease and natural hazards such as hailstorms and heavy winds which destroy the banana plants.
She appeals to the Government to have an emergency fund for such natural hazards and inspire others to take up farming.