Kiambu County has been growing bananas for hundreds of years, mainly for food, making juice and using its fibre to make ordinary mats or ropes.
Few of us knew banana stems can be used in making high-quality furniture, but as Philip Kariuki, Chairman Ndundu Royal Mothers and Fathers Sacco put it, “It always seems impossible until it’s done.”
In fact, for many banana farmers, a banana stem is only good for mulching and few banana growers think they can make profit from the trunk after harvesting.
However, banana stems are a ‘gold mine’ and farmers benefit handsomely from growing bananas, selling fruits and banana stems that have for long been considered agricultural waste.
When Ndundu Royal Mothers and Fathers Sacco in Gatundu South, Kiambu County was formed in 2014 the idea behind it was to empower its member to start farming but now the Sacco is doing something different apart from farming.
“The Sacco was formed to bring together members of this community. We started by keeping cows, rabbits and chicken before realizing that our waste can become a source of income,” he said.
Since most of them are doing dairy farming and they are in banana growing zone with plenty of banana trunks they decided to turn banana fibre into something useful as a way of turning this trash into cash and now they are using banana trunks to make raw materials for making furniture.
“This innovation, the first of its kind in Gatundu South, will not only create employment but also contribute to environmental conservation by reducing the number of trees being harvested for furniture,” said Kariuki.
Kariuki explains that after watching different artist making furniture using palm leaves he decided to come up with something unique which can make durable furniture’s and after research he realized that banana fibre is one of the most underutilised waste which was readily available and in abundance.
“As I was researching I was motivated by one carpenter who was making furniture from fibreboards and that is when I realised that this was a profitable business which is yet to be discovered,” he said.
Since the Sacco draws members from different background they wanted to start a project which can accommodate all of them thus making their products 100 per cent handmade.
He explains that as a way of taking advantage of the abundance of the natural product after harvesting the crop, they extract banana fibre from the trunk of the plant and they use it to make whole range of products from household goods, furniture’s, handicrafts, bags and textiles.
“To make our furniture’s more durable we use recycled steel since we want our products to be 100 per cent recycled. Our prices range from Sh400-5,000 depending on the size and item type,” he said.
While the project has seen some success already, Kariuki wants to keep it growing. He says that more training will be needed to take full advantage of this free natural resource, but is clear the benefits would be seen in more fibre products and improved quality.