He switched from being a middleman to a farmer

Yoram Tinaako was a matooke vendor, selling them in Kampala and Rwanda. But he was not satisfied with his suppliers as they did not have enough for his trade.

He decided to venture into matooke growing after he saw how much money he was paying one of his major suppliers, Silver Mugurusi, of Kikagate in Isingiro District. “I decided to grow matooke on a large scale when at one time I realised how much I was paying Mugurusi for a single trip. I would pay him more than Shs3m which was a lot of money,” he says.

The soft spoken and media shy Tinaako says he started growing matooke on a large scale in 1999 and currently has over 25 ha of the crop.

He says the start was not easy because he lacked enough land so he had to embark on land acquisition before he could realise his dream. He had to convince his neighbours to sell him their pieces of land and eventually he realised his dream.

He joined a farmer cooperative group, Rukoni Bariisa Bahingi Barungi, which brings dairy and matooke farmers together. He is full of praise for the group. He now produces about 600 to 700 bunches of matooke per month, earning him about Shs7m per month.

He eventually became its chairperson in 2008 and has steered it into a lucrative venture. “We came together as a cooperative society to see how we can address our problems of marketing our products and other constraints facing farmers so that we can act as one people.”

Currently, they sell their produce to traders who export it to Rwanda, Juba, Burundi and Kampala.
To get better quality matooke he had to get good banana suckers like Siira and Mpologoma varieties from Kawanda research station in Kampala. Other members of his society are slowly but surely learning how to manage banana plantations and also getting better technologies.

Tinaako has also diversified and has started intercropping coffee in the banana plantation with the hope of reaping from the coffee using the same piece of land. “I have started planting coffee trees which mature quickly and grow short so as not to kill my bananas and I hope to make more money from them,” he says.

Constraints
Tinaako says the major constraints are lack of manpower, lack of a market when it is peak period, the banana wilt disease and manure. Some of the workers want payment even before they have worked. However, he is happy that he has not been hit by the disease although it has affected his fellow farmers in the region.

“Despite the threat of banana wilt disease, I have been blessed with bumper harvests since I started commercial matooke growing. However, my biggest worry is drought which has affected production,” he says.

The country has just recovered from a drought that has affected food production, making some families go without enough food and sending food prices through the roof. Currently a bunch of matooke costs Shs 10,000 to Shs15,000 at farm gate price.

Tinaako however would want his cooperative society to get a market which would be a one-stop-centre, supplying institutions on a large scale and removing middlemen who distort the prices.

His other dream is to add value to their produce like packing the matooke, making flour, cakes and other products so that they can remain with the peels which would be very useful as animal feeds and manure for their plantations. He wants the government to help them. “This would not only add value to our produce but also would act as food security for the country,” he reasons.

The other constraints are that many farmers lack information on banana growing and better suckers which has led them to produce poor quality matooke. He also faces stiff competition from farmers with bigger bunches of matooke which usually leads him to lose out or to sell alone. This has largely remained a dilemma for him.

Achievements
He has been able to buy more pieces of land to expand his plantation, built himself a good house and send his children to good schools in the country like Bweranyangi Girls Secondary School, and Kabateraine Memorial Primary School, among others.

He has also diversified his business, having acquired a maize milling machine, started timber business and is in the process of buying a truck to help him in his business.
He has also started mixing animal feeds for both dairy cattle and poultry.