Social Aspects of the Maintenance of Banana Landrace Diversity in Central Uganda

The Baganda people of Central Uganda have embraced the diversity of banana landraces while developing a unique livelihood system based on banana cultivation. To elucidate the mechanism of how this diversity is maintained, it is essential to consider the social aspects of this population. This paper describes the processes involved in receiving, keeping and exchanging the banana landraces. In this area, farmers continue treating the banana plants individually at the same places, and they clearly remember when and how they received each landrace. The land tenure system has ensured them to repeatedly cultivate the same landraces of bananas at the same places, as well as to preserve the sentiments and memories attached with these landraces. The interviews revealed that the landraces have accumulated over decades in the homegardens of each household. In other words, the increase in the number of landraces parallel to the household formation results in the diversity.