Decapitated banana plants are virtually worthless. Therefore, farmers must remove and mulch them. Can they be of any use? Yes, according to a Ugandan company purchasing banana stems to make attractive handicrafts.
In East Africa, the notion is original and sustainable. Uganda produces the most bananas in Africa and consumes the most. Bananas can provide 25% of daily calories in rural regions, according to the UN Food and Agriculture Organization.
Many Ugandans consider a meal incomplete without matooke, the starchy boiling mush prepared from raw banana varieties.
Decapitating the stem to harvest the crop may be brutal in big plantations after a heavy harvest. Open fields naturally decay stems.
A local startup, TEXFAD, a waste management company, is extracting banana fibre from decaying stems to make products. TEXFAD is testing banana fibre fabric with researchers. He stated the firm can create paper towels and sanitary pads from banana fibre, but not clothes yet.
