Bananas were ripening too quickly due to the extreme heat, which caused significant losses for Ms. Nkhana and many other farmers in the Karonga district.
At the Twitule Cooperative Group processing plant, she tells the news, “Then we discovered how to make banana wine.” She is peeling lemons, which are needed to preserve the taste of bananas.
For the farmers, producing wine is only one aspect of their mission; other priorities include survival, adaptability, and seizing the opportunities presented by a changing climate.
They had been farming along the shores of Lake Malawi, but as a result of increased rainfall, the water levels rose and washed away their banana plantations. This forced them to relocate to higher, hotter fields where temperatures reached 42C.
“Our problem at the old farm was the lake’s abundance of water. A few bananas used to capsize in water. For a few, the locations of our plants were hardly visible.
Anne Okumu Plantation of bananas submerged in water Anne Okumu
The second-largest lake in Africa is Lake Malawi.
We have far too much heat up here. Our bananas ripen quickly as a result, and they go wasted, claims Ms. Nkhana.
