East African Business Week (Kampala)
East Africa: East African Farmers to Gain From Disease Resistant Banana
By Kenan Kalagho, 4 March 2013
(Mr Wilfred Mushobozi a scientist showing a banana plant at his breeding site in Arusha recently, Photo By Kenan Kalagho)
The technology involves combining the genes of white pepper and that of bananas.Banana wilt has been affected the quality of their yields and thereby reducing the prices of banana at the world market.
With climate change, population increase, pest and diseases, soil infertility as well as drought due to climate unpredictability, scientists around the world are struggling to find the best ways of solving these challenges using modern methods.
According to Wilfred Mushobozi, the Chief Executive Officer of Crop Bioscience Solutions, who is also a scientist based in Arusha, Ugandan researchers at the Kawanda Research Institute have managed to breed banana wilt resistant crops.He stressed that the newly developed wilt resistant crops will be distributed throughout East Africa and the Democratic Republic of Congo free of charge to farmers.
The bacterial wilt in Banana is caused by Xanthomonas campestris pv. musacearum (Xcm) with symptoms that include progressive yellowing and wilting of leaves, shriveling of male buds, premature ripening and internal discoloration of fruits.For Uganda, it is estimated that the disease caused losses of up to US$35 million in 2005, and it was projected that in 2006 the country was expected to lose up to US$100 million as the disease had already spread to at least 30% of all banana growing areas.
According to reports from Agricultural and Development Research Institute, a large number of farms also were destroyed in 2006 in Kagera region in Tanzania, a region that borders Uganda to the north-western part.
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