Banana is an important commercial fruit crop for smallholder farmers in Arba Minch, southern Ethiopia. However, its sector is experiencing many constraints and limited attention given to productivity and marketing. Therefore, this study was conducted to analyze the banana value chain in order to identify constraints on productivity and marketing, and possibilities of improvements towards a sustainable value chain in Arba Minch. Data were collected through a survey, key informants’ interviews, and focus group discussions. Different analytical and statistical tools were used for data analysis. Results describe actors, supporters, and influencers of the existing banana chain. The current banana chain has three different distribution channels in Arba Minch. The channel that connects with rural consumers has the highest value share for farmers while the channel that includes traveling traders has the lowest value share for farmers. The marketing cooperative channel has an intermediate value share for farmers in the chain. Poor agronomic practice, diseases, pests, and climate change were the major constraints for the banana yield while limited market information, lack of cold store and refrigerated trucks, poor post-harvest handling, lack of alternative markets, and weak capacity of cooperatives were the main constraints for banana marketing in Arba Minch. Economic, social and environmental indicators have a moderate sustainability performance within the Ethiopian context. The chain has an advantage in terms of profitability, employment, emission of air pollutants and constraints in terms of coordination, value share, profit margin, market diversity, product and market information, transportation, waste management, and safety and hygiene.
MULTIFILE
This paper assesses the sustainability performance of the banana value chain by comparing and discussing 25 attributes owing to different sustainability dimensions. The paper identifies critical aspects and provides a qualitative assessment of the sustainabilityperformances of banana chains at the local level. The study finds economic, social, and environmental indicators have moderate sustainability performance in the Arba Minch, Ethiopia. The chain has an advantage in terms of profitability, employment, and emissionof air pollutants; and constraints in terms of coordination, value share, profit margins, market diversity, product and market information, transportation, waste management, and safety and hygiene.
MULTIFILE
Waste disposal management and the energy crisis are important challenges facing most countries. The fruit-processing industry generates daily several tons of wastes, of which the major share comes from banana farms. Anaerobic digestion (AD) technology has been applied to the treatment of wastewater, animal slurry, food waste, and agricultural residues, with the primary goals of energy production and waste elimination. This study examines the effect of organic loading (OL) and cow manure (CM) addition on AD performance when treating banana peel waste (BPW). The maximum daily biogas production rates of banana peels (BPs) with a CM content of 10%, 20%, and 30% at 18 and 22 g of volatile solids (gvs) per liter were 50.20, 48.66, and 62.78 mL·(gvs·d)−1 and 40.49, 29.57, and 46.54 mL·(gvs·d)−1, respectively. However, the daily biogas yield showed no clear interdependence with OL or CM content. In addition, a kinetic analysis using first-order and cone models showed that the kinetic parameters can be influenced by the process parameters.
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