Banana farmers tap from climate change funds.

By our reporter

Soon, gone will be the days when a banana farmer would lose a banana plantation to hailstorm or any other natural disaster and walk away with the entire loss as scientists have finally made a breakthrough in their negotiations.

The scientists at the Bushenyi District based Banana Industrial Research and Development Centre (BIRDC)/ The Presidential Initiative on Banana Industrial Development (PIBID) at Nyaruzinga have positioned bananas as a crop that should be compensated under the climate change funds-carbon credit.

This follows a successful presentation at the COP26 (Conference of Parties) where scientists presented and defended banana plantations as critical in combating the effects of climate change through capturing carbon from the atmosphere.

The BIRDC Director General Rev. Prof Florence Muranga launched the Cooperative Insurance Partnership for Innovative solutions to climate change for the Tooke Cooperatives recently at BIRDC in Bushenyi district. The two Tooke Cooperatives to pilot the model are Bumbeire Banana Farmers cooperative society Ltd and Shuuku Banana Farmers Coop in Sheema district.

With this project which is funded by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), banana farmers will be linked to insurance companies where they will be able to insure their banana plantations so that incase a natural disaster strikes, a farmer is compensated and advised on the different technologies to embark on to mitigate the effects of climate change.

“We count this as another milestone achievement in our journey of transforming the banana industry and advocating for farmers,” Muranga said.

Caption; Children in Bwera Kyeizoba, Bushenyi district showing snow that seriosly hit their banana plantation during a heavy hailstorm .

The Bushenyi Resident District Commissioner (RDC) Robert Atuhairwe applauded the scientists for making such a head-way.

“Some scientists have failed to show us the science they studied but at BIRDC, you have proved to the entire nation,” Atuhairwe noted.

Dr Joseph Bahati a scientist at BIRDC said at the COP28 which kicked off this week, they are going to present again at different panels to lobby for more carbon funds so that more banana farmers can also benefit from the carbon funds. “We are looking at a situation where every banana farmer with a banana plantation is tapping from the carbon funds because in science, the bigger the green leaf cover that one has, the more carbon that he/she captures,” Bahati vowed. End.

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