Banana bacterial wilt disease (BBWD) is threatening the livelihoods of many farmers in Uganda. According to Peter Ssetenda, programme assistant at the Centre for Integrated Development (CIDev) in Kayunga, BBWD is known to have begun in Mukono district in September 2001. It has spread to 19 districts and continues to spread.
Mbarara District Agriculture Officer Charles Byaruhanga suspects that trucks which used to bring vanilla from Mukono to Bushenyi could have brought the disease. "We think the disease could have been transmitted through the tyres of the lorries which would leave infected mud in other areas. Also some farmers used to load vanilla and infected bananas together with soil which would be planted in Bushenyi," said Byaruhanga. He says BBWD arrived in Mbarara two years ago and up to now the disease has no local name because of its newness to the area's farmers, although they have taken measures to control it. "We have not had new outbreaks since we started preventive methods," he says.
According to Byaruhanga, BBWD is a soil-borne disease and gains entry in plant bodies through roots and openings on plants caused by nematodes. It is mostly serious in poorly drained soils and is spread through infected suckers. It initially appears in older leaves and causes premature fruit to start ripening. Soon after, the male bud withers and rots before it drops off.
Moses Kibumba, the BBWD district coordinator in Kayunga says, "The leaves and bananas tend to turn yellow before rotting within a short time. When peeling banana from an infected plant you find that they are brownish inside or at times black in colour. The brown and black colours are a true indication of the disease. And when you cut the banana stem or peel the bananas, the sap turns a creamish colour after 5 to 15 minutes."
Byaruhanga says, "Many farmers have been following the different ways of controlling the disease while others are either reluctant or too old to follow the steps."
Many farmers can now identify the disease in its early stages. David Bogere, the vice chairman of Biharwe banana wilt task force in Mbarara,said one way of spreading the disease has been through using tools on both infected and healthy plants. "We simply rinse tools used on an infected plant in a dilute disinfectant such as bleach or alcohol, or heat them up in fire," he says. One cup of bleach can be mixed in five cups of water and this helps to kill the nematodes, thus controlling the spread to other plants.
Mbarara is one of the biggest producers of matooke in the country. It exports to Rwanda, Tanzania, Burundi and eastern DR Congo and within, it sells to Soroti, Mbale and Kampala where the demand is very high. Matooke is a major cash and food crop in Uganda.
Ssetenda explains the difficulty faced in implementing control measures: "We lacked cooperation from farmers because many refused to cut down their entire plantation, thinking that the disease was just like any other banana disease." A recurrent problem faced was shortage of extension workers to train farmers on control measures.
Farmers are also advised to avoid moving things like leaves, stems or even bananas from places where the disease has been identified. Cutting off the male bud early using a long dry forked stick also helps and use of lusolobyo, a tool where a sickle or knife is attached to a stick used to cut leaves of the bud is discouraged. "The control methods are simple though some farmers tend to neglect them," says Kibumba.
The disease has affected the social-cultural aspects of the residents in some areas, with some abandoning banana growing altogether because of the heavy losses.
The Monitor
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