PowerPoint Presentation

What are implications of integrating gender? Lessons from banana value chain work Anne Rietveld 9 December 2015RTB Annual meeting, Lima, Peru

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Focus

Project: Reducing post-harvest losses and promoting product differentiation in the cooking banana value chain (Endure)Study: Banana-based beverages in East-Africa: diagnosing value chains and associated livelihoods Study: GENNOVATE case-studies in Western and Central Uganda, Burundi, Rwanda and Eastern DRC

Objectives ENDUREReducing post-harvest losses through promotion of varieties with intrinsic longer shelf-life and better post-harvest handling practices

Increasing market access and transparency in unit pricing through product differentiation and piloting the weight-based pricing system

Promoting sucker staggering for evening-out banana production across seasons

Linking the different actors along the value chain to benefit from emerging untapped market opportunities based on product differentiation. PHL for men and women estimated; Mother garden for clean seed hosted by male and female farmers > Monitoring for learning Participation of men and women in VC determined. Female producer from site supported by project to spearhead diversification and weight-based price systemBoth male and females trained. Demonstration farms established on womens land tooObservation focusing on male and female participation in stakeholder / producer meetings > development of guidelines

Selected sites are in Rakai and isingiro districts in Western Uganda; top Matooke regions in the country3

GENNOVATE insightsOne of the RTB Bioversity GENNOVATE case-study was in IsingiroSome lessons learnt:1) Banana plantations firmly controlled by men; only exception = women with absentee or dead husbands2) Womens access to land is restrained as a result of commercial success of banana production > access to other (food) crops from own production reduced3) Womens engagement in VC nodes as trade and retail in rural areas is limited as dominant gender norms discourage womens independent entrepreneurship and mobility

StudyTitle: Banana-based beverages in East-Africa: diagnosing value chains and associated livelihoods

Objective: To assess the importance of banana-based beverage production in East-Africa for rural and urban livelihoods.

Countries included in study: Tanzania, Uganda, Burundi, Rwanda and DR Congo.

PartnersBioversity InternationalCIRADRwanda RABTanzania MARIDR Congo INERABurundi ISABU & FABIUganda NARO

Regional importance as cropBurundi - 84% of all bananas cultivated are juice types Rwanda - 47% of all banana cultivated is Juice type, reduced over past 2 decades from about 60%DR Congo - Around 85% of all banana cultivated in the Kivus is juice types Tanzania Approximately 10% of all banana cultivated arejuice types in Kagera regionUganda - An estimated 10% of total area under banana cultivation is juice type

ContextFew employment options for rural youth other than casual farm work

Limited access to land for women and rural poor

Agri-business identified as important driver of local and national economies; currently very limited in EA region

Processing of RTB crops still limited (percentage of total production)

Take home message is 1) banana-based beverages (banana juice) are very important for rural households in the region, we know how they work > how can we upgrade?8

Cross country comparisonValue chains in all countries are structured fairly similar:Limited use of external inputsValue chains are mainly short and local and lot of vertical chain integrationBoth women and men are involved in the chain but some nodes in the chain or activities are dominated by one of the sexes.Rwanda = different due to government regulationProcessing is mainly artisanal using traditional technology Average income derived from VC engagement contributes more than 40% to total household income for all direct VC actors

Income at production level

Common practice or the artisanal way

Low input, low output systems. Reserve bank. Land and banana plantation often controlled by men. Juice extraction by women = taboo in the whole region but women often still control the process but hire labor for extraction.11

Common practice or the artisanal way

Female traders are rare. Female retailers common however and even dominating in DRC12

VC Map Tanzania

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Completion studyMain partners in write-shop last week toValidate reportDevelop scientific papersWorking titles:Socioeconomic Importance of Banana-based Beverages on LivelihoodsStructure of the bbb value chains; a micro, Meso and Macro perspective for the east African regionFactor affecting quality of banana-based beverages in East AfricaImpact of BXW on bbb value chain in eastern and central Africa regionUse and abuse of alcohol

Integrating genderKnowing more about gender often makes our live more complicated.Particular crop is strongly in domain of either sexGender norms often limit specific forms of participation of womenSuccess in one area (e.g. increased production of crop A) can have negative consequences in an other area ( (decreased land availability crop B)Knowing? Who knows and who is convinced? Gender = culturalKnowing is not doing >> capacity local staff and partners How do we valuate income to the household gender-wise?

The future for banana-based beverages?