Uganda: Urgent funding needed to stem devastating banana wilt

Lack of funding has stalled a campaign to eliminate a deadly bacterial banana wilt disease that has spread to "worrying levels" in Uganda, threatening the food security of up to 14 million consumers of bananas as a staple food, say scientists.

According to a scientist at the country's premier agricultural research institute, the disease - known as the Banana Xanthomonas Wilt (BXW) - can only be contained if funding of up to US$1 million per year is secured for the fight against its spread.

Jerome Kubiriba, a research officer in charge of banana bacterial wilt disease at Uganda's National Agricultural Research Organization (NARO), said if the disease continues to spread, production of cooking bananas (known locally as 'matooke', a major staple food in much of the country) could be halved over the next 10 years.

Studies show that annual consumption of bananas in Uganda is the highest in the world at about 0.7kg per person per day.

"Funding of at least $1 million annually would effectively save bananas worth over $200 million annually," said Kubiriba.

"The government of Uganda used to support this effort significantly, [but] this support has drastically reduced. Even donor support dwindled since 2008. Until that time, the disease had been kept under control in major banana growing areas but it has since increased to worrying levels."

The director of crop resources in the Agriculture, Animal Industry and Fisheries Ministry, Okaasai Opolot, says the disease, which attacks all types of bananas and is spread by insects, wind-driven rainfall, infected planting materials and contaminated planting tools, is a threat to banana production in East Africa. More than half of mountainous South Kivu in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) is infected by BXW, threatening the livelihoods of local communities.

Source: www.irinnews.org