Resource-poor farmers in the humid forest zone of West and Central Africa suffer heavy losses in plantain cultivation from numerous pests and diseases. Nematodes are amongst the most damaging pests, attacking the plant roots and causing many plants to fail before an edible bunch of fruit is produced.
Farmers in Cameroon and Nigeria, however, have now the means to prevent these pests from damaging their crop by applying hot water to treat plantain and banana suckers to kill nematodes and rid their farms of nematodes, bacterial, and fungal diseases. Those who apply the hot water treatment have not only controlled the nematodes and root-rot diseases but have
doubled their yields.
In Ekiti State, southwestern Nigeria, many farmers say that half of their plantain do not produce any fruit bunches before the roots are destroyed. The hot water treatment is bringing back the lost glory of plantain in the area. There is a huge market for plantain chips in Nigeria, and banana and plantain are major export crops in Cameroon.
One particular species of nematode that lives only in the root system of plantain and banana is causing serious yield loss in several countries of sub-Saharan Africa. It is very likely that a farmer who digs out a sucker for a new field will carry the nematodes on the surface and in the roots of that sucker to a new field. “Nematodes are spreading rapidly and they need the plantain or the banana as a host”, says Dr. Stefan Hauser, an agronomist with the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA), who introduced the hot water treatment technology to farmers in Cameroon.
Nematodes can be controlled by placing the suckers in water at 52 °C degrees for 20 minutes. But peasant farmers have no equipment to ensure the exact temperature. IITA’s scientists confirm that research demonstrates that the technology is effective, but outside research stations, it is difficult to apply.
Infested suckers are placed in boiling water (100 °C) for just 30 seconds. The heat shock kills all pests and diseases on and just under the surface sucker but does not kill the sucker. To boil water no special stove, container, or thermometer is needed to control the temperature. The only important thing is to not leave the sucker for too long in the boiling water. Lacking timers, resourceful just clap their hands 30 times to mark thirty seconds.
Nematodes could be eliminated by using broad spectrum nematicides of very high toxicity, which kill practically any organism. “They are expensive, they are pollutants, and they are systemic, the plants taking them up and distributing them inside through tissue. One is never absolutely sure if there are no residues being retained in the edible matter”, says Hauser.
The boiling water technology is simple to use, and cost-effective. “It may be a good idea to have this as a standard treatment against practically everything that is attached to the outer surface of the corm because it kills bacteria, fungi, nematodes, and weevils that pose a health problem,” says Hauser.
IITA
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