Ngara, TZ – Students are using local farming officer’s methods to improve banana production – 31 Oct 2021

Mukibogoye primary school in Ngara district in collaboration with SODAT continued improving its banana field by using better growing methods learned from the local farming officer. The school cooks and students dug troughs and replanted 150 banana trees themselves.

The bananas will assist the student’s breakfast sustainability because cooking bananas can substitute for corn flour and beans. The students are improving their learning by planting the banana trees, they are gaining farming knowledge, improving their health and assisting the school to earn a more predictable income from banana sales. An income that can be used to purchase farm inputs and breakfast ingredients when there is a poor harvest. The students and their families also assisted with controlling fertilizing costs by donating manure from their home animals.

The students are in need of some farming equipment and tools to make it easier to achieve their expectations for a daily breakfast. The main challenges are the need for working capital to purchase wheelbarrows and fertilizer application buckets.

They dream of being food self-sufficient and predictably feeding themselves breakfast each school day. They are now considering adding substitute crops like beans, cassava and avocado trees in the banana fields.