As of July 9th (my brother’s birthday) all 38 Community Knowledge Workers (CKWs) have been trained and individually monitored to ensure that they are following the proper GIS Banana Disease Monitoring Survey Protocol (please see attached pdf for survey questions and protocol). The CKWs are SPLIT between two regions: 19 CKWs in the Eastern District of Mbale (on the Kenyan border) and 19 CKWs in the Western District of Bushenyi (on the Congo Border).
These regions were selected because they are the highest banana producing regions in the country. The majority of bananas produced in these regions (and across Uganda, Rwanda, DR Congo, Tanzania and Kenya) are the East African Highland Banana or what is locally referred to as “matoke” (also known as the steaming, boiling or cooking type). Other types of banana produced in these regions include juicing (used to make banana beer, wine and gin), roasting (which are plantains that are typical roasted and sold at the roadside for a quick snack), and dessert/sweet (like the types eaten in Europe and the US). Most of the bananas produced in these regions are either consumed locally or transported to the capital city of Kampala, where they can fetch a 300% profit (all of which goes to the banana trading middle men, minus the cost of transportation).
The importance of the banana cannot be overemphasized in Uganda. On average a typical Ugandan consumes 500 pounds of banana annually (this is twenty times more than we eat in the US). In remote villages of Uganda the average consumption per person annually is over 900 pounds! Joseph Mukiibi, the former director of the Ugandan National Agriculture Research Organization stated – “Uganda doesn’t endure famine, and to a great extent that is because of the banana”. In the near future, this statement may no longer hold, if the spread of banana disease continues at its current pace.
The data gathered during this pilot project is currently being analyzed to determine the usefulness of the “GIS Banana Disease Monitoring” system in charting banana disease incidence trends, collecting different types of data (survey, picture and GPS) for GIS analysis, and verifying data quality (by taking soil and plant samples during farmer follow-up visits and measuring CKW effectiveness in collecting and delivering information). Due to the small sample size of CKWs involved in the pilot project, each CKW will be individually evaluated to identify the ideal character profile of an effective “Mobile Banana Disease Monitor”.
If the CKW proves to be a reliable community based agent for plant disease monitoring, then agriculture research institutions will have a new tool to detect, compare, analyze, and predict epidemics of plant disease for the ultimate purposes of developing and testing control strategies. More specifically, research institutions will have the foundation for the following:
- Modeling disease development in time and space
- Identifying patterns of disease and sampling methodologies for disease in targeted populations
- Determining decision thresholds for control interventions
- Characterizing the relationship between disease development and crop loss
- Increased research efficiency and effectiveness through better knowledge of disease incidence and severity
- Better prioritization of research, emergency, and development interventions
- The establishment of a community based early warning monitoring system
- The establishment of a community based quick response protocol to control disease/pest outbreak
- A direct information channel to remote farming communities to increase awareness about the presence of disease and the appropriate control measures
- Assessing the effectiveness of past or existing agriculture extension services targeting crop disease control
- Increased productivity of farm systems through reduced disease risks
- The design of systems that specifically seek to empower communities and individuals and encourage public participation in GIS-based decision making
- The integration of local knowledge in GIS applications
- The use of dynamic digital mapping and GIS-multimedia methods that represent differing forms of quantitative and qualitative information
- The integration of GIS with the Internet (thereby providing a central platform to share information).
Most importantly, small farmers will have access to high-quality, location-specific information to make better decisions – farmers can then use this information to decide which crops to cultivate. Furthermore, farmers could receive pest and disease information directly through their mobile phones and apply best practice control measures to boost their farm productivity. Ultimately, farmers will be able to help other farmers by sharing knowledge received through easy to access, credible information channels provided directly through their mobile phones or through a network of specialized Community Knowledge Workers.
A personal note: Strangely enough, with all of the bananas that are consumed in Uganda, no one that I have met in this country has ever heard of a Banana Split – my informal survey has indicated that there is a market opportunity, based on the fascination I have encountered with this concept. Maybe if more Ugandans get hooked on this delicious dessert it could be the catalyst for reliable electricity.
Lastly, some of the content in this blog (parts of the third paragraph) was taken from a book I recently read called “Banana: The Fate of the Fruit that Changed the World”. This book was written by Dan Koeppel and if you are a banana lover or not, I highly recommend reading it.
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