Bacterial wilt banana disease in Uganda spreads out to neighbouring Eastern Africa while the banana bunchy top disease spreads through Malawi into southern and central Africa.

“I am very shocked to discover the extent of the banana bunchy top disease in sub-Saharan Africa and how little attention it has received! It does not reduce yields; it completely eliminates yields destroying propagation materials too,” warns Dr Simon Eden-Green, a consultant with the UN Food and Agriculture Organization. “We need to be more pro-active in raising awareness on the urgency for policy-makers to act and safeguard the region’s food security.”

According to the scientists, the banana bunchy top viral disease, spreads epidemically and is almost impossible to eradicate once established.

The disease is currently well established in Gabon, DRC, Congo Brazzaville, Northern Angola and central Malawi. In a survey, scientists found the disease to have already taken root in 12 countries.

“We found The farmers are familiar with the symptoms of the disease likening it to SIDA (AIDS) or calling it witches broom,” say Dr Lava Kumar of the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA), who led the survey.

In Malawi, where the disease was noted in 1994, a survey found 45,000 hectares of bananas are currently infected with the banana bunchy top viral disease in all three regions of the country – north, central and south.

By 2003, the mkhotakota Cavendish banana was completely wiped out by the bunchy top disease, says Dr Mischeck Soko from the Bvumbewe Agricultural Research Station in Limbe, Malawi.

Survey

Results of another survey released earlier this year found the banana bacterial wilt disease established in Ethiopia, Uganda, Rwanda, western Kenya, North Western Tanzania, North and South Kivu in DRC. Scientists fear the disease is poised to gain entry into Burundi.

Uganda, Africa’s leading producer and consumer of bananas, has been battling the banana bacterial wilt since 2001 and had by 2007 saved the equivalent of USD513m worth of crops, a banana expert from Uganda’s National Agricultural Research Organisation, Dr Jerome Kubiriba said.

The country loses between $70million and $200million every year to the BXW disease. Uganda is on red alert for the banana bunchy top disease in neighbouring countries.

Most countries in central, eastern and southern Africa have been struggling alone without realising their neighbours are also contending with the same disease.

The viral disease has now forced scientists and policy makers to urgently convene, under the auspices of the Southern Africa Development Cooperation (SADC), and develop disease management strategies that will avert a food crisis.

The SADC meeting has brought together about 60 African scientists from affected countries, as well as international scientists and partners, to share information on disease status and exchange experiences and best practices in the management of the two diseases.