HOW MUCH CAN A FARMER EARN FROM 1 ACRE OF BANANA PLANTATION?

HOW MUCH CAN A FARMER EARN FROM 1 ACRE OF BANANA PLANTATION?

Productivity of your plantation will depend on both natural and artificial factors which include Nature of Soils, Pests and Diseases control, Application of Modern Farming techniques among others.

With spacing of 9ft by 9ft, a farmer can plant 500 banana plants in one acre of land; and 450 plants with 10ft by 10ft spacing.

Between 8-10 months, a well managed banana plant flowers/sets a bunch. The bunch takes more 3-4 months to fully mature. This makes a total of 14 months or slightly more for a farmer to realizes his first harvest.

So a farmer will harvest 450-500 bunches in the first harvest considering the fact that all banana plants produce a good commercial bunch.

This means a farmer can earn Sh 7.5 Millions if a bunch is sold at Sh 15,000 farm gate price or Sh 5 Millions if a bunch is sold at Sh 10,000.

The following years, each plant will give a farmer 2-3 bunches. This means production will increase to 1,500 from 500 bunches every year. This means if a bunch is sold at Shs15, 000 farm gate prices, a farmer will earn as high as Sh 22.5 Millions a year. If sold at Sh 10, 000, a farmer will be earning Sh 15 Millions annually from one acre of banana plantation.

Although planting 1 acre of banana isn’t labour intensive, it requires an investment capital of between Sh 2.5M-Sh 5M depending on your location.

The best commercial varieties include Kibuzi, Kisansa, Npologoma and Nakabururu.

Kibuzi is indigenous but produces big bunches and the matooke fingers are big and straight. It can also live for many years. Kisansa variety produces bigger and compacted bunches.

Mpologoma produces bigger bunches, but doesn’t last for long like Kibuzi.

Nakaburu is resilient to all conditions and resistant to diseases. It has compact bunches with short matooke fingers. It is mainly good for food security reasons.

Mbwazirume, Nsakala and Muvubo are other good varieties.

A farmer can choose to mix the above varieties for better results.

Information by Ssalongo Ssali (Facebook, Twitter, YouTube & Quora)

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Email sr9donluiz34@gmail.com

GOOD LUCK Fellow Farmers.