Battling a Banana Killer in East Africa

The cooking banana is the staple food of more than 14 million Ugandans. These banana varieties are very susceptible to the banana bacterial wilt and its occurrence in two districts in Uganda in 2001 has spread to 32 districts in 2005. Since then, banana production plummeted to 65 to 80 percent. A project to solve the problem was launched two years ago by the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and Uganda’s Ministry of Agriculture, Animal Industry and Fisheries. Farmer Field Schools were established in five districts to help local growers acquire hands-on knowledge on how to prevent the disease from occurring and spreading.

The farmer field school classes were conducted to time the regular banana production cycle, with the lessons and activities being hands-on and impart practical and immediately implementable knowledge. The techniques taught were simple and chemical-free methodologies such as planting only clean seedlings, applying wood ash to fight the disease, or removing the male buds that are the entryway for new infections from trees by hand, instead of cutting them off with knives, which tends to spread bacteria from tree to tree. Ugandan officials estimate that the problem is now over 75% contained and should be conducted also in other districts of Uganda. FAO is now optimistic that these banana field schools will also be successful in neighboring countries of Tanzania, Ethiopia, Rwanda, and the Democratic Republic of Congo.

For details of the project see: http://www.fao.org/newsroom/en/news/2008/1000921/index.html