VISIT TO BANANA IN-VITRO (TISSUE

CULTURE) PROPAGATION PROJECTS

IN UGANDA

2th to 4th June 2010

Joseph Sekiku

Pastory Rugarabamu

David Itegereize

With kind support of ACTION IN AFRICA- ASHTEAD (UK)

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VISIT TO TISSUE CULTURE/ IN-VITRO PROPAGATION
LABORATORY IN KAMPALA:

Introduction:

Bananas are an important crop for the people in Nyaishozi

(Karagwe) for their food as well as income. However, the banana
crop is being threatened by a number of factors:

a) Prevalence of diseases and pests

b) Diminishing soil fertility due to soil exhaustion and poor land
use management practices
c) Increased population and therefore pressure on food
reserves

However, these have come at a time when new opportunities in

marketing, processing and distribution are emerging due to
improved road and communication infrastructures, new markets
being opened including local, national, regional and international
markets.

These opportunities therefore make it necessary and important to

be considered, while designing poverty eradication plans and
improved livelihood for the people in Nyaishozi.

Therefore, the visit to banana propagation projects in Uganda,

was intended in one part to find interventions that could steer the
rural farmer in Nyaishozi towards better standards of living
through improved production. Growing and selling of bananas on
the local and export markets.

The visit was therefore organized and took place from the 2- 4th
June 2010 and was undertaken by a team composed of : Joseph
Sekiku, Patory Rugarabamu and David Itegereize and was
supported by ACTION IN AFRICA- ASHTEAD, UK.

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RATIONALE OF THE VISIT:

Following from my former place of employment Bio-versity

International (formerly International Network for the
Improvement of bananas and plantains – INIBAP) I have been
informed of the developments in the banana breeding sector.

The project was initiated purposely to produce clean planting

banana materials in the wake of nematodes and other pests.
Intrinsically though, the vegetative propagation (using tissue
culture) was seen as a remedy to in-situ conservation of best
banana cultivars.

Normally bananas are propagated naturally through suckering

and de-suckering. This process is prone to transfer of diseases
from mother to sibling. In case where good yielding cultivars
have fallen prey to pests and diseases, it has become very
difficult to reproduce bananas cultivars and some of them are in
danger of extinction.

Therefore, INIBAP initiated breeding programs with support from

the University of Luven in Brussels. Vegetative propagation was
therefore seen as a remedy and has been widely disseminated
leading to the creating of banana breeding laboratories in Africa.

BANANA LAB IN KENYA:

The banana laboratory in Nairobi is interested in CAVENDISH type

of bananas. These are not suitable for Karagwe. The cavendish
type of bananas are mainly a plantain type not goof for cooking
nor for beer or dessert, so not a likely commodity for Karagwe
farmers.

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BANANA IN-VITRO/ TISSUE CULTURE PROPAGATION IN
UGANDA:

Following the successful establishment of the banana propagation

lab in Kenya, a new laboratory was established in Uganda under
INIBAP. This was later transferred to private investors.

Currently, the work of micro-propagation is undertaken by the

main KAWANDA AGRICULTURAL RESEARCH INSTITUTE and a
private company called Agro-Genetic Technologies Ltd (AGT
managed by Mr. NSUBUGA ERASTUS- Private Tissue Culture, who
is multiplying clean tissue cultured planting materials for
distribution to farmers.

ACTUAL VISIT TO THE BANANA PROPAGATION UNITS IN

UGANDA:

1. Visit to AGRO GENETIC TECHNOLOGIES LTD: This laboratory

and propagation units are located at Mityana Road and his
contact details are:

Mr. Erostus W.N.Nsubuga,

Agro-Genetic Technologies Ltd (AGT)
Buloba Town,Mityana Road,
P.O.Box 11387
Kampala, Uganda

A physical visit was made to the above company which has a

propagation laboratory just outside of Kampala. The place is
divided into 3 departments: Laboratory for in-vitro/ tissue
culture; propagation nursery and a sales/ extension department.

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PROCEEDINGS WHILE AT AGT LTD:

i) A meeting was held with the

management of the laboratory and
the line managers of the different
departments.
ii) Physical visit was made to the different
sections, whereby we were offered the
opportunity to see, learn and ask questions.
iii) Lines for future collaboration were explored.
iv) A few dozens of banana plants were bought to bring back
to karagwe. 6 different types of banana cultivars were in
production and we brought back with us a dozen of each
cultivar.
2. Kawanda Agricultural research Station:

A visit was made to the national agricultural research station.

Two main departments were visited. These included the
banana promotion department and the micro or in-vitro tissue
culture propagation laboratory.

i) Site visit and study tour was

conducted in all areas of the
laboratory by the specialized
staff of the project. And we had
the opportunity to ask all questions that we possibly had.
ii) Study tour was conducted to the
propagation nursery at NARO.
iii) A meeting was conducted whereby the staff involved in
the project made a presentation about the project,
outlining the rationale for the project, areas for future
collaboration and advice for scaling up and penetration
into other countries within the region.

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SOME TECHNICAL INFORMATION:

a) Why tissue culture:

Banana production especially in Eastern Africa has been in decline

over the last ten years primarily because of crop diseases and
pest infestations, as well as environmental degradation.

Tissue culture propagation is the process of growing tissue

culture for plant shoot-tips in a laboratory until they are ready for
transplant into the field. Because of the highly controlled starter
environment, tissue culture propagation significantly reduces
disease and dramatically improves yield when coupled with good
agronomic practices she says.

Long term objectives of the project:

• The tissue culture program seeks to

increase farmer incomes, alleviate
hunger and poverty and develop
agri-based businesses to improve
the economy of the community and
surrounding areas.

• The tissue culture banana project

encourages farmers to use clean,
disease-free, and insect-free planting
materials, such as those from tissue
culture propagation.

• Tissue culture propagation contrasts with the current

practice of transferring banana suckers between farms.
While reflecting a long-standing heritage, this traditional
approach increases the risk of transmitting pests and
spreading disease among the banana crops.

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 • Short term objectives of Banana Tissue Culture

• Improve food security among resource-poor farming

communities in sub Saharan Africa
• Reduce poverty among small-scale banana farmers in sub
Saharan Africa.
• Facilitate access to tissue culture plantlets by supporting
establishment of distribution nurseries within farmers’ reach
through micro-credit schemes.
• Reduce post-harvest losses and increase incomes from
banana by identifying and linking farmers to promising
markets for both fresh and processed products.
• Enhance banana utilization by promoting a range of
processed products locally and internationally.
• Assess investment options for expanding banana-based
enterprises in rural economies and promote uptake of the
promising technologies to new potential investors.

Future Intervention/Strategies to be adopted by ACTION

IN AFRICA IN NYAISHOZI

• Carry out on-farm trials in Nyaishozi (Karagwe) to evaluate

suitability of tissue culture cultivars to the fields.
• Conduct participatory rural appraisals to identify production
constraints, major cultivars preferred by farmers, marketing
channels and improvement opportunities.
• Training of trainers, farmer groups and extension officers in
farm management, post-harvest handling, marketing skills
and value-addition.
• Establish community nurseries in Nyaishozi, for easy access
to tissue culture banana plantlets.
• Conduct socio-economic and market studies to understand
the dynamics in growing, utilization and marketing bananas.
• Link farmers to markets, micro-credit schemes and
encourage them to form peer groups to increase their
bargaining power.
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Tissue Culture Capacity Building Benefits to Farmers

• Minimize losses due to better post-harvest handling skills

and value-addition.
• Reduce yield losses due to diseases and pest through easy
access to large quantities of quality clean, high yielding
plantlets or seedlings
• Improve incomes due to higher prices for tissue culture
bananas
• More farmers use their incomes from bananas not only to
increase their orchards but also diversify into other farming
activities like livestock rearing.
• Reduce gender gaps due to improved incomes among
women.
• Access to micro-credit will allow more farmers to establish
commercially viable orchards
• Increased access to better markets like supermarket chains.
Uniform maturity allows for harvesting of large quantities of
bananas to supply large markets.
• More farmers trained on farm management skills and group
dynamics

Dealing with banana bacterial wilt (in Uganda)

Banana production in east Africa is being threatened by banana

bacterial wilt. Questions surrounding this were asked to the
experts at NARO. The experts say, banana bacterial wilt can be
controlled and where possible completely eradicated.

This require highly controlled agronomic measures whereby

diseased plants are destroyed completely while new plants are
completely disease free.

Scientists in Uganda have developed GM bananas that show

promising resistance to the deadly banana Xanthomonas wilt
(BXW) disease.

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Bananas are Uganda's leading non-cereal crop with some 70 per
cent of the population depending on it as staple food. More than
US$200 million has been lost to BXW infestation since 2001. The
disease has also been reported in Burundi, the Democratic
Republic of Congo, Kenya, Rwanda and Tanzania.

Now, the banana plants modified with two genes derived from
sweet peppers (Capsicum annuum) show resistance to the
disease caused by the bacterium Xanthomonas campestris pv.
musacearum.

Principal investigator Leena Tripathi, a Ugandan-based

biotechnologist from the International Institute of Tropical
Agriculture, Nigeria, said inserting the genes - plant ferredoxin-
like amphipathic protein (PFLP) and hypersensitive response-
assisting protein (HRAP) - separately in four local banana
varieties is giving encouraging results (see GM bananas to fight
wilt in Africa).

FUTURE PLANS at NYAISHOZI:

Clean planting materials remain the only solution for improved

banana production in Karagwe. With experiences gained from the
two projects, the following interventions are recommendable for
replication in Nyaishozi:

a) Identify and train farmers in Nyaishozi about the current

situation of banana production, highlighting problems
associated with the production systems, while at the same
time pointing to the potential of bananas for food security
and income generation in the district.
b) Establish a multiplication/ propagation nursery at Nyaishozi.
This is easy as in-vitro plantlets can be procured from AGT
or from Kawanda agricultural research and transported
easily in jars or bottles. This will be worked out.

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 c) Suitable in-size and popular cooking varieties can easily be
propagated. The best advantage of this: they are disease
free.

ASSOCIATED COSTS/ WHAT IS REQUIRED:

The following are pertinent according to my observations for a

successful establishment of disease free banana planting
materials in karagwe/ Nyaishozi:

1. ESTABLISH BANANA PROPAGATION NURSERY (IES) IN

NYAISHOZI

This would involve establishment of the following

infrastructures:
a) A working building (semi- laboratory) where tissue
culture plants procured from the laboratory in kampala
can be kept before, potting and establishing into
nurseries, to prepare them for distribution to farmers.
b) Establishment of propagation nurseries for plantlets to
grow into transplantable banana plantlets.
2. WATER reservoirs for watering
3. Transport facility preferable a pick-up truck for the collection
tissue culture materials from Kampala; and for eventual
distribution of planting materials to farmers in Nyaishozi.

PROPAGATION NURSERIES REQUIRE MORE THAN A HOUSE.

Different options exist also for these as will be indicated below in
the following diagrams:

COSTINGS:

Mr. John Simon and pastory Rugarabamu to send estimate of the

costs based on architectural designs that could be agreeable.

JOSEPH SEKIKU/FADECO/ ACTION IN AFRICA-NYAISHOZI

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