The Kitarasa Banana is an important element of food culture at the foot of Mount Kilimanjaro. This banana variety is used to make flour for porridge, to produce a traditional local beer and as mixture with traditional dishes. Nevertheless, Kitarasa producers are decreasing, due to changes in culture, lifestyle, poor market access and the introduction of other varieties.

“Some 20 types of bananas are grown in the Kilimanjaro area, but banana biodiversity is threatened by agribusiness corporations, who have introduced monocultures of the Cavendish variety. For hundreds of years, farmers have selected and preserved different varieties of bananas and plantains, all with distinctive social cultural uses, aromas and tastes. This is why it’s important to support the farming communities that are protecting and defending this diversity which underpins our food sovereignty,” says Edward Mukiibi, President of Slow Food International. “If we move towards uniformity, monoculture and standardization, then fruit species can and will disappear, reducing ecosystemic resilience to climatic stress, pests and diseases.”