Juliana Mandha and her two siblings were raised by their single mother in Mukono, a peri-urban area in Uganda. In her early childhood, Mandha lived with her grandmother in rural Rukunjiri, where she saw farmers selling their matoke (bananas) at a throwaway price. During harvest season, all bananas would ripen at the same time, flooding the market. “Farmers would end up selling at a very low price—they would not even get enough to cover their costs,” laments Mandha. “Only the middlemen benefited.