Scientists have developed a banana variety that has the ability to resist fungal infection, ensuring increase in yields in African countries including Kenya.

In improvement in Musa variety is as a result of a five-year successful plant breeding research work done by the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA).

 According to a banana trader Mr. James Moigwa, the fungus causes premature ripening of the fruit, reducing its quality.

“Although the fruits appear normal, those from the affected plants ripen and spoil fast before arriving at markets.”

In addition to the new banana variety, the scientists have developed new cultivars with higher fruit quality, shorter stature and greater resistance to setbacks such as nematode. Such fruits high yielding fruits are able to reduce poverty and increase income generation in sub-Saharan Africa.

 “We have developed new methods for deploying the varieties in a way that preserves traditional varieties while offering additional value,” says Dr. Abdou Tenkouano, a lead researcher at IITA in Ghana.

According to him, the new variety was developed based on different Musa varieties-plantain in western lowlands in Nigeria and cooking bananas in the central and eastern highlands of Uganda.

“We are confident that our findings will bring a stop to the declining yields in Musa output across Africa,” adds an elated Dr. Tenkouano.

Banana production in sub-Saharan Africa accounts for 30 million tons of the bananas produced globally.

But despite increases in plantation acreage among small-scale Musa farmers over the past several decades, yield levels have fallen behind those of other players in the industry.

One of the main factors for this performance has been the attack by Black Sigatoka fungus, which renders the fruits inedible and ultimately kills the plant.

Initially detected in Fiji in 1963, the fungus was reported in Uganda in 2001 and has since spread rapidly to Ethiopia, Uganda, Democratic Republic of Congo, Rwanda, Kenya, Tanzania and Burundi, affecting one third of bananas. It is also a major problem in West African countries of Ghana , Cameroon and Ghana.

In Uganda, the fungus has cut crop yields by 40 per cent and affected over 35 districts, resulting in loses amounting to over US$ 100 million.

Immediately reports of the fungus outbreak in neighbouring countries reached Kenya, the government formed a task force to look into ways of managing it. At stake was the one million tones of bananas that the country produces every year.

The task force included researchers from Kenya Agricultural Research Institute (KARI), Kenya Plant Health Inspectorate Service (KEPHIS), Ministry of agriculture and farmers’ representatives discovered yellow and black sigatoka on the highlands and lowlands respectively.

Since then different studies have been going on in the country with some done in collaboration with regional and international partners. Hence, the development of the disease resistant was good news for many farmers.

The five-year IITA research looked at maintaining breeding capability for plantain in West and Central Africa and banana in East Africa. It also strengthened research capabilities of National Agricultural Research Stations (NARS).

International Agricultural Research (CGIAR) and the government of Belgium’s Directorate-General of Development Cooperation, (DGDC) supported IITA’s research to a tune of more than $4 million.

 An AWC-Feature 

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