Editor,

Refer to the article, "Eastern farmers count losses as bananas rot away in plantations” (The New Times, July 15).

The Ministry of Agriculture should find ways to help these farmers. The problem they are facing is occasional over-production. One solution would be to build air conditioned warehouses where farmers can store their harvested bananas while waiting for the market to pick up again. This can be done cheaply by using solar energy since there is abundant sun light in that region.

Bananas can be kept fresh for a long time at the right temperature if properly packaged. For example, you can keep banana in the fridge for months as long as it is properly wrapped to avoid direct contact with a cold surface.

The ministry can also help them change the way bananas are transported. By cutting small bunches from the whole and packaging them in boxes it could lower transport costs and facilitate refrigeration.

That’s how Caribbean and South American countries easily export a lot of bananas safely to North America.

Another solution I would suggest to the farmers is to form cooperatives. This would enable them to pool resources together and buy refrigerated trucks and construct banana peeling centres so they can start supplying hotels and supermarkets in Kigali with peeled banana.

This would also diminish the problem of garbage hotels have to deal with.

Also, by selling whole banana bunches, farmers are losing peels they could use to feed their animals or sell to those who own them or simply use them to fertilise their banana fields.

Kelly