Kawanda to use farmer platforms to fight bacterial wilt disease

Feb 12, 2017

One farmer platform which brings together all banana growers in western region has been created and others will be formed in other banana growing areas across the country at a later stage.

PIC:Dr.Namanya (touching the bananas ),checks on one of the bananas that are ready for transfer (Photo by Prossy Nandudu)
The National Agriculture Research Laboratories (NARL) Kawanda, are to use farmer groups and platforms across the country to promote bananas that are resistant to banana bacterial wilt disease and have been enhanced with Vitamin A.
 
The varieties include Nakitembe and Kiwangaazi which are not only resistant to the banana bacterial wilt disease but also have Vitamin A
 
This was revealed by Dr.Wilberforce Tushmereire, director of the NARL Kawanda on Friday, while meeting the state minister for cooperatives, Fredrick Gume Ngobi.
 
One farmer platform which brings together all banana growers in western region has been created and others will be formed in other banana growing areas across the country at a later stage.
 
"We have created technology pathways or farmer platforms to get the technologies to the community when we are through .This helps to know if farmers have accepted them or not so we can work back words to tress the problem," said Tushemereire.
 
The platforms will also be used to teach farmers best farming practices, marketing skills, empowering them to decide their own prices so as to avoid middlemen among others.
 
Dr.Priver Namanya, a research scientist in the banana program added that once research works are done on the two types of bananas. They will be taken to farmers platforms, who will try and test them in their gardens; their analysis will create a case of either releasing them or not or modifying them before they can be released to the public.
 
Why Vitamin A in bananas
 
She explained that for now Kawanda is working on  bananas  because it is one of the most consumed food crop in Uganda by both children and adults but areas that consumer more bananas  have low nutritional content.
 
It is estimated that about 1/3 of women and children in Uganda are Vitamin A deficient, leading to preventable conditions like blindness among children, impairs the immune system, increases risk of death from common infectious diseases among children 
 
"Therefore the two varieties are being modified by adding Vitamin A, through the genetic engineering but because we still don't have a law regulating genetic engineering, these will be developed and made ready when the law comes in place, that is when it will be given to farmers," she explained.
 
Ngobi visited the research station to find out what researchers are working on to help farmers who form the biggest percentages of cooperatives remain in production amidst effects for climate change.
 
Effects of climate change like drought create a moist environment which becomes favors the breeding of diseases such as the coffee wilt, banana bacterial wilt diseases among others.
 
Having gone through the laboratories, fields and listening to all the explanations, I convinced that farmers will have quality seeds for more production and will incur less costs on pests and diseases like the banana bacterial wilt disease.
 
Ngobi added that he also wanted to find out the truth about genetically modified organisms. "I have only discovered that it was a mere playing about with a cell from sweet paper and missing with another from bananas and the result is a normal banana but very resistant to diseases, so I don't see the reason why we should not accept the technology," said Ngobi.
 
He explained that most cooperatives are made of farmer groups but for these to produce the required food for both home consumption and for sale; they should be given quality seeds that are also resistant to diseases.
 
"This will help when we start grouping them for marketing purposes as we shall need large volumes of food items for marketing which can only be achieved with quality seed that is disease free," he said
 
Other crops that are being developed using Genetic engineering include cassava for resistance against the cassava mosaic and brown streak disease, maize for the maize lethal necrosis, sweet potatoes, rice so that it can have iron in it among others.

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