Since a banana farming project was initiated in Kiambu five years ago 1,149 hectares have been put under bananas with a production of 49,823 tonnes.
This is acording to Kiambu County Agricultural Sector Development Programmes (ASDP) coordinator Collins Mwangi.
He said that Sh1.02 billion has been earned by banana farmers since the inception of the project in the county.
The coordinator however recalled that the area had a potential of about 5,000 hectares which should be under banana farming adding that his organisation would work hard in conjunction with other stakeholders to cover the deficit.
He was speaking at the Kenya Agricultural Research and Livestock Organisation (Karlo) grounds in Thika Sub-County on Thursday where he met farmers from the area and when he accompanied the World Bank Mission officials who were touring some of the projects that they were funding together with the government in the area.
"The programme goal is to support the transformation of the agricultural sector into an innovative, commercially oriented, competitive and modern industry aimed at reducing poverty and improving food security.
The coordinator said that in 2014 the organisation was able to accomplish value chain mapping and analysis and identified gaps in value chain.
He said that after the survey was completed on banana value chain 3,500 bananas farmers in the county had adopted tissue culture farming and 10,000 species planted.
Mwangi recalled that the national government had funded bananas tissue culture at a cost of Sh4 million while the county government had also contributed Sh260,950.