Seven districts in Tanzania have taken measures to try and control the banana disease Xanthomonas Wilt (BXW). This as announced by the Tanzania Daily News. Almost 90% of the banana trees in this region is said to be attacked by this bacteria. The banana production in Kagera amounts to almost 650,000 tons and support about 2.2 million people. Other regions of the country have also been infected, especially Mara, Mwanza and Kigoma.
Although the pest has a regional character, all of Eastern Africa and the region of the Great Lakes are hit in general. In January 2012 a conference took place between representatives of the countries Kenya, Tanzania, Congo, Burundi, Uganda Rwanda and Zambia in order to inform them about the controls and the surveillance of the sicknesses.
The FAO have already called for the development of a world map showing the sicknesses attacking the cooking bananas in order to decrease the loss of production, which could amount to 4 billion Euro.