An Economic Assessment of Banana Genetic Improvement and ...

CHAPTER 4
Development and Dissemination of Improved
Banana Cultivars and Management Practices
in Uganda and Tanzania
Enoch Mutebi Kikulwe, Kephas Nowakunda, Mgenzi Said Ramadhan
Byabachwezi, Jackson M. Nkuba, Josephine Namaganda, David
Talengera, Enid Katungi, and Wilberforce Kateera Tushemereirwe
This chapter summarizes the major approaches employed to combat plant pests and diseases
in the Lake Victoria region of the East African highlands. In Uganda, national
researchers have pursued a short-term strategy of assembling endemic and nonendemic
germplasm for evaluation, and a long-term strategy of breeding for resistance using a combination
of crossing and genetic transformation. Practices targeting both management of the natural
resource base and the crop itself are also recommended, because bananas demand intensive
management to sustain yields. Planting material that is free of pests and diseases has long been
a major concern for banana growers and national research institutions in both countries. Tanzania
has no formal banana-breeding program, and although extension services in the Kagera
Region have undertaken projects to eradicate pests and diseases with insecticides, they have
been unsuccessful. As in Uganda, collections were made in search of resistant material, and
new banana-management practices have been recommended. Through KCDP and the International
Plant Genetic Resources Institute (IPGRI; now Bioversity International), a range of
new materials—including the first banana hybrids—was introduced, tested, and disseminated.
In Uganda, a number of dissemination mechanisms have been employed for both planting
material and recommended practices. Given the reproductive properties of bananas, farmerbased,
participatory methods have been recommended.
Research Priorities
The EAHB is susceptible to pests (nematodes, banana weevils) and diseases (black Sigatoka,
banana streak virus) (Gold, 1998, 2000; Gold et al. 1998, 1999; Gold, Pena, and Karamura
2001). Traditionally, farmers replaced a diseased endemic cultivar by replanting suckers of the
same cultivar obtained from their fellow farmers within or outside the community. Often, this
process inadvertently contributed to the spread of the pests and diseases, because farmers did
not recognize infested or diseased planting material or fully understand the life cycles and
transfer mechanisms of pests and diseases, especially given continual evolution of new races
and pathogens. In areas along the lake shores in Bukoba and Muleba districts of Tanzania, in
particular, as a growing rural population intensified banana production to meet their food and
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