Tanzania seeks funds to fight banana disease

Tanzania produces 3.7 million metric tonnes of bananas annually on 403,000 hectares. PHOTO | COURTESYBy Zephania Ubwani

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Arusha. Donor agencies are being reached out for support over a deadly banana disease recently detected in Kigoma region.

The resources are to be spent to map out the disease spread across the country so as to ease containment measures.

Experts would also be tasked to develop biosecurity measures and control strategies suitable for smallholder farmers.

“We are reaching out to development partners to seek resources for extensive surveys,” said the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA).

“In addition we are liaising with our offices in Central Africa who have experience working on this disease it said in a statement to The Citizen.

Early this month, IITA raised an alarm over the banana viral disease that it says has been detected in the country.

This was after DNA samples from banana plants with typical virus symptoms from Buhigwe District tested positive.

BBTV or Babuvirus is said to be among the most devastating banana viral diseases and can wipe out production by 90 percent.

The virus is largely spread by a common banana aphid (insect) called Pentalonia nigronervosa.

Farmers spread it further through sharing of infected planting material, the agricultural think tank further said.

Officials of the Crop Development Directorate in the ministry of Agriculture were quiet when reached for comment.

IITA maintains it was seeking “proven strategies” that can contain the disease from spreading and recover production areas already affected.

“All this depends on our ability to raise the needed resources,” the institute- whose eastern Africa regional offices are in Dar es Salaam - noted in a dispatch.

No survey has established the spread of the disease outside Kigoma region but the research body insists BBTV requires “rigorous quarantine measures”.

In the 1990s, the disease was reported in Central Africa and Malawi with yield losses of up to 90 percent in banana cultivars.

If left unchecked, banana production could be reduced by 100 percent, meaning that farmers will not be able to produce bananas in the affected areas.

“There is an urgent need to assess the extent of disease spread from the affected areas (Kigoma) to better delineate the affected areas,” it further said.

Tanzania produces about 3.7 million metric tonnes of bananas annually on an estimated 403,000 hectares.

Kilimanjaro and Kagera are the most famous banana growing regions, which together produce about 2.5 million tonnes a year.

In Africa, Tanzania ranks fourth in banana production.

Among the other leading producers are Uganda and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).

Over 60 percent of bananas are grown in Kagera and Kilimanjaro regions where it is the staple food for 75 to 95 percent of the local population.