A small-scale farmer in northern Malawi, Emily Nkhana used to discard over-ripe bananas or just let them rot, but she has now found a profitable use for them – banana wine.
Extreme heat was causing bananas to ripen too quickly, resulting in heavy losses for Ms Nkhana and many other farmers who live in Karonga district.
“Then we discovered how to make banana wine,” she tells the BBC, as she peels lemons that would be used to preserve the taste of bananas at the processing plant of Twitule Cooperative Group.
For the farmers, it is not just about making wine – but also survival, resilience, and embracing the new possibilities that come with a changing climate.
They used to farm next to the shores of Lake Malawi and their banana plantations were being washed away by rising water levels due to increased rainfall, forcing them to move to higher but hotter grounds, where temperatures soar to 42C.
“Down at the old farm, our challenge was loads of water from the lake. Some of the bananas used to drown in water. Some, you couldn't even see where we planted.
“Up here, we have way too much heat. It makes our bananas ripen very fast and go to waste,” Ms Nkhana says.
She is part of a group of women who have come together at the cooperative to improve their economic conditions through farming.
Wine production is a small-scale venture in the women’s backyards, where they plant banana crops.
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