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Poor yields of East African highland bananas (Musa spp., AAA-EAHB) on smallholder farms have often been attributed to problems of poor soil fertility. We measured the effects of mineral fertilizers on crop performance at two sites over two to three crop cycles; Kawanda in central Uganda and Ntungamo in southwest Uganda. Fertilizers were applied at rates of 0N–50P–600K, 150N–50P–600K, 400N–0P–600K, 400N–50P–0K, 400N–50P–250K and 400N–50P–600Kkgha⁻¹yr⁻¹. In addition 60Mg–6Zn–0.5Mo–1Bkgha⁻¹yr⁻¹ was applied to all treatments, with the exception of the control plots which received no fertilizer. Fresh bunch mass and yield increased with successive cycles. Yield increases above the control ranged from 3.1 to 6.2kg bunch⁻¹ (average bunch weight for all treatments 11.5kgbunch⁻¹) and 2.2–11.2Mgha⁻¹yr⁻¹ (average yield for all treatments 15.8Mgha⁻¹yr⁻¹) at Kawanda, compared with 12 …