Irrigating your bananas ensures the plantation never stops giving

Having your garden well-watered and keeping the moisture longer is not only the way to go in unbecoming adverse weather conditions, but it ensures a healthy harvest.
Research indicates that low annual yields which range between 4.3 and 5.4 tonnes per hectare according to FAO is usually attributed to pests and diseases but poor soil fertility and dwindling rains are emerging as important factors limiting productivity.
Innovation through irrigation
Matooke, also referred to as cooking bananas a staple food among communities in central and western Uganda, is under serious threat.
The banana wilt, weevils and nematodes are ravaging plantations.
The Presidential Initiative on Banana Industrial Development (PIBID) is offering irrigation as an alternative to improve harvests.
Eng William Mwegombi, an irrigation expert in both the closed and open systems, says bananas can give a lot more to farmers even in dry areas if they embrace irrigation.
PIBID is promoting drip irrigation which Mwegombi recommends for being ideal in banana plantations no matter the size as fertiliser and nutrient loss is minimal. He argues that it also reduces leaching.
The biggest advantage though is that water is effectively used.
“In dry areas, water is the challenge therefore reducing shortage is important to cutting costs,” he said.
At their demonstration farm during the just concluded agricultural and trade show in Jinja, Mwegombi showed how it works.
Silver bullet?
He says that unplasticised polyvinyl chloride pipes or PVC pipes can locally be obtained in several hardware shops. But he cautions, “Trained people must be hired.” He estimates that a simple one-acre farm costs about Shs15 million to have the system properly installed. This system can last up to 10 years.
“This figure appears big to most farmers but the benefits are huge. Such an investment ensures at least Shs18 million in harvests,” he says.
The simple calculation is that if one plants 425 bananas in an acre and they produce a minimum of two bunches, a farmer can sell each bunch for Shs20,000 which can generate about Shs17 million.
Funding
He advises that good banks offering agriculture funding can help farmers get loans. Government introduced the low-cost solar power irrigation project funded under the Presidential Initiative on Science and Technology in a bid to guarantee all-year production.
Mwegombi argues that solar pumps tend to benefit people near water sources and yet drip irrigation allows water to trickle to the plant with the root system following the water.
He says matooke does not need a lot of water although it requires it regularly with each plant estimated to take is about 10 litres a day.
Other solutions could be to connect to the national water grid or digging a borehole. “The bottom line is that irrigation must be embraced. People say matooke is disappearing but the rainfall has reduced and the best possible way is now innovation through irrigation,” he says.
Other practices
Adadi Kanyesigye, an agronomist with PIBID demonstrated good practices which can make your garden keep giving.
Before planting, he advocates for the use of fully decomposed manure as well as burying the sucker to enable it establish roots before it faces the sun. Kanyesigye adds that the plantation must be mulched as well as tying a fibre around the area where dry banana leaves have been removed to control water loss. Pruning the male flowers off the bunch as early as possible is also important. “The male flower consumes up to 30 per cent of the total nutrients of the plant if not pruned early,” Kanyesigye notes.
Below the mulch, he advises applying manure especially animal refuse. “Water loss must be controlled to have strong stems and good bananas,” he adds.