Eastern Uganda has overtaken Buganda in the growing of bananas according to the 2024 National Housing and Population Census.
Thank you for reading this post, don't forget to subscribe!The census report shows that 30% of the households in Eastern Uganda grow bananas (matooke) compared to 22% of households in Buganda. Western Uganda remains the leading matooke growing region with 42.5% of households growing the food crop.
It is the first time in 10 years that Eastern Uganda has overtaken Buganda in matooke growing. The uptake of matooke growing in Eastern Uganda has been tremendous.
According to the 2014 census report, only 18% of households in Eastern Uganda grew bananas. The number of matooke-growing households in Buganda appears to more or less have stagnated over the same period.
Matooke is arguably Uganda’s most-grown food crop. At least 6 million tonnes of Matooke are grown in Uganda per year according to the Open Agriculture Journal, a global publication on food production.
Of this, 70% is kept for domestic consumption while the remainder is sold.