FARMERS AFFECTED BY BANANA DISEASE DIRECTED TO DESTROY ALL THE PLANTATIONS

The team from MAAIF and stakeholders show Candi Justo, a farmer on how to remove the plantations as the owner (4th left ) looks on  in Pajulu village

By Godwin Abedican
 
Arua

Banana farmers in Arua district and other districts whose plantations have been affected by the banana Bunch Top Viral (BBTV) disease have been asked to destroy all the plantations so as to avoid the reoccurrence and spreading of the disease.

A team from the ministry of Agriculture Animal Industry and Fisheries (MAAIF), National Agricultural Research Organization (NARO) together with other partners held a disease surveillance visit to Pajulu village, Ozoo parish, Logiri sub-county, Arua district on Thursday July 11, 2024, during which it was discovered that if this is not done, then the risk of further spread is looming.

NARO has in recent years developed around 5 sets of new banana variety high breeds, in 2010, 2015 and 2018 with other new varieties expected to be released soon.

Dr. Alex Barekye, the Program Leader, Banana Research Program at NARO says, it’s still hard to contain the disease unless farmers destroy their affected plantations.

“Our main focus for breeding new banana high breeds has been focusing on black sigatoka which is a disease that affects the leaves, we focused on banana weevils and banana nematodes. We seem to have fixed those challenges but now the challenge of banana bunch top virus which is a major problem now, among the varieties that we have released, none of them is resistant to this disease. So, we have to use cultural methods to manage and control this banana bunch top disease. From my observations, this disease is threatening banana productivity. We have recommendations that we are looking at. The major one is getting rid of all the infected plants by uprooting and burning, after which we need to come in and provide clean planting materials. This process, if we work together, to me in a period of 2 to 3 years, we shall be able to eradicate this disease,” Dr. Barekye said in an interview.

Dr. Alex Barekye, the Program Leader, Banana Research Program at NARO
speaking during an interview

Onziyo Franco the LC 1 Pajulu village Ozoo parish Logiri sub county Arua district says that out of the 96 households in his village almost all got affected. “This disease is widely spread in my village here. Many households have had their plantations affected. We didn’t know what we are going to do. We have been cutting down, burning the leaves but it has not been helping,” he said.

According to him this has left many banana farmers counting loses. “Ever since the disease started, we do not get much money. We used to get from fifteen thousand (15,000) shillings to forty thousand (40,000) shillings per bunch. But currently, we can only get between five thousand (5,000) and ten thousand (10,000) shillings on a bunch,” the LC1 narrated.

According to Enzaru Janet, the Agricultural officer of Maracha district, as a district after discovering the disease they have also been employing rudimentary methods. “In 2022, the team from the ministry came and we did some surveillance and did not find a case in the district. It is this year that that we discovered the disease actually exists in one of the sub counties. I checked and reported to them then they confirmed that it was the case. This was in Ollufe Sub County. This disease being viral, my worry is that it is capable of spreading to other Sub Counties. The cases in the district have not been very serious but I think with time, it can become a very serious problem. The local intervention in managing a disease starts with employing cultural methods, in which advised the farmers to uproot the whole plant, destroy and suspend the planting of bananas for at least two years so that the disease can get out of the place,” she explained.

Enzaru Janet, the Agricultural Officer of Maracha district spaking to the
media about the status of the district on the disease

Candi Justo, a farmer in Pajulu village says, he has had his plantations for 8 years out of which he used to get a minimum of 1 million annually. He says this has left him with no any other option but to give up for now. “How to handle this situation has been difficult for us. And since there has been no support we were forced to leave it just like that. Cutting down my plantation is not hard in a day or two, I can do that but as I will be planting the new ones I will have to wait for long to start getting money. We used to get fees out of the bananas and since they are infected we are facing fees challenges everything has become hard, now am thinking of shifting to growing cassava and beans,” he said painfully.

The banana bunch top viral (BBTV) disease was first noticed in west Nile in 2020 with its subsequent confirmation first in Arua district before spreading to other districts.