Specific crops - Banana
 IPGRI activities in SSA
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Bananas are a staple food crop in the Great Lakes region of eastern Africa and production is based on a set of unique cultivars known as the East African Highland Bananas. Within this cultivar group there is great diversity not found elsewhere. A project that aims to encourage in situ conservation of banana genetic resources through sustainable utilization was initiated in 1999 in the Great Lakes region with funds from IDRC. Researchers are working with farmers to identify the factors influencing farmers' decisions to conserve or discard diversity and to find ways of addressing the causes behind genetic erosion. Project teams have been established in two sites in Uganda and Tanzania, and a genetic resources specialist and a socio-economist have been brought into the study. Initial studies have focused on the identification and characterization of diversity in farmers’ fields and the exchange of information on banana diversity between participating farmers.
INIBAP is supplying improved banana varieties to a project in Tanzania, the KCDP, a Belgium–Tanzanian bilateral programme. In 1997, 15 improved banana varieties were introduced into Kagera, a region which had been experiencing declining banana production during a critical period of population boom. In 1999 a further five new varieties were made available in the form of 25,000 plants obtained through tissue culture at the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, Belgium. Collaboration with NGOs, schools, district extension services, the Ministry of Agriculture and farmers has allowed the KCDP to carry out programme activities in all five districts in the region. This involves setting up means for multiplication, demonstration fields and test plots. The performance of FHIA-17, FHIA-23 and SH3436-9 has been impressive, generating high demand for planting material. Yangambi Km5, FHIA-01, Pelipita and FHIA-03 were also very popular. According to local taste the improved varieties do not quite match traditional types, but they are still better appreciated than other staple foods. The impact of the introduction of the new varieties is being monitored by the Agricultural Research Institute, Maruku and KCDP. They will focus on the number and yield of local and improved varieties in farmer's fields. The diffusion of new material indirectly into farmer's fields from demonstration fields and test plots is also being monitored. In 2000, the Government of Uganda approved the allocation of its CGIAR donation to INIBAP for the implementation of a Musa biotechnology project. A planning meeting was held in September 2000 involving all the project partners: NARO (Uganda), Makerere University (Uganda), CIRAD (France), the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven (Belgium), IITA (Nigeria and Uganda) and INIBAP. The project will focus on the introduction of genes for enhanced tolerance to pests and diseases into the traditional East African Highland Banana varieties. The project also involves a large component of capacity building, through training programmes and infrastructure development. This is a unique example of a developing country providing funding for biotechnology research on an important food crop. |
An associate scientist seconded to CRBP has been managing a programme since 1999 to develop an integrated pest-management strategy against the banana weevil borer (Table 1). Four species of weevil are present in smallholders' fields in southwest Cameroon: Cosmopolites sordidus, Metamasius hemipterus, M. sericeus and Pollytus melleborgi. Weevil larvae bore into the corm and weaken the plant, resulting in high plant mortality, reduced bunch weight and reduced hand number. The most severe infestations are caused by C. sordidus. Plantains appear to be most susceptible. Table 1. Different forms of pest control under trial in southwest Cameroon
In the laboratory, young plantain suckers dipped in 20% neem solution have been found resistant to weevil attack for up to three months. Exposure to neem brings about a decrease in the fecundity of female weevils, rates of oviposition and hatching of eggs, resulting in a reduction in sucker mortality by 25–30%. However the toxicity of neem on adult weevils is low compared to other insecticides, which helps to explain why crushed neem seeds applied to the crown of the plant have no effect. Wood ash, which is regularly used by 30% of households in Cameroon, has proved a moderate repellent but does not decrease oviposition, hatching or adult survival. Coffee husks had no effect whatsoever, but hot pepper blocked the hatching of eggs and had a moderate repellent effect on adults. A combination of neem and household ash, perhaps with a conventional insecticide or biological agent to control adults, may prove a useful combination. Tests are examining the effectiveness of other forms of control, such as pathogenicity of entomopathogenic fungi and baited traps, and also the population dynamics of the pest, and the presence of resistance in 60 banana varieties.
INIBAP is funding multiplication experiments in the University of Ghana Agricultural Research Station which have provided a technique that could generate up to 1000 suckers from one Apantu plantain sucker in a single year, using just coconut water. By injecting 6–8 ml of coconut water (an average coconut fruit contains 150 ml of coconut water) into the base of a plantain sucker on three alternate days, apical meristem growth is slowed and radial growth is encouraged, resulting in the stimulation of axillary buds to form plantlets. The new suckers can be removed, and their corms split and sprouted in moist sawdust. So far the treatment has succeeded on three plantain varieties, Apem, Apantu and Asamienu. Work is continuing on other cultivars. If successful, the technique will provide a highly practical method of multiplication in the field that involves very little expense. |
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