Jamani kama gonjwa hili likitambaa hadi Tanganyika tumeumia. Endapo mvua zenyewe mwaka huu ni haba na hivyo mazao ya msimu ni haba tegemeo lilikuwa ni kwenye ndizi, mihogo na viazi sasa kama na huku kumeambukizwa ni hatari kwa familia zetu.
Sijui kama kwetu tumeishalishtukia hili....................
| News | March 30, 2009 |
| Uganda issues new banana disease alert Uganda has put its national crop disease surveillance network on the alert for a possible outbreak of a new incurable banana virus. The Director for Crop Resources in the Ministry of Agriculture, Dr Opolot Okasaai, said the Banana Bunchy Top Virus (BBTV), is likely to strike Uganda from across Rwanda or DR-Congo, threatening the multi-million annual local banana industry. Already Rwanda, DR Congo, Congo-Brazaville, Gabon and Hawaii have reported the problem. Dr Okasaai said the virus has no known cure so far, and that all available banana cultivars and varieties in the country were vulnerable to the attack. This will be a major blow to the agricultural sector following a recent Banana Bacterial Wilt Disease (BBWD) attack, which has devastated over 50 districts in the country, wiping out up to 90 per cent of farm yields and threatening household food security. Uganda has one of the highest per capita matooke (green bananas) consumption rate in the world at about 500kg. Matooke alone occupies 38 per cent of Uganda’s arable land, accounting for food security to over 12 million Ugandans, according to the National Agricultural Research Laboratories. But in the last five years, production has sharply decreased due to numerous diseases and pest attacks. Following the new threat, the government has sent a scientific team to Rwanda led by the head of Banana Research Programme, Dr Wilberforce Tushemereirwe, to assess the danger. “We are also alerting all farmers and district agricultural officers, especially on the western borders to be on the look out,” Dr Okasaai said. The BBTV virus is transmitted by insects called aphids. Unlike the BBWD, the new virus is not mechanically transmitted through using the same farm tools like pangas, which may have cut an infected crop. Dr David Talengera, a senior banana researcher at the National Agricultural Research Laboratories in Kawanda, said the virus is known to stop the banana from flowering and producing a bunch. The leaves of the banana form a rough, bunchy-like structure pointing upwards, with no bunch forming. He said the disease is also transmitted by planting materials when a parent stock produces a sucker that is transferred across distances for planting. “We are discouraging this. We intend to develop guidelines on handling this disease,” Dr Talengera said. Scientists have also developed national banana virus index to address multi-disciplinary interventions. The viruses that have been identified as pathogens in banana (Musa spp.) are abaca mosaic potyvirus (AbMV), banana bract mosaic potyvirus (BBMV), banana bunchy top virus (BBTV), cucumber mosaic cucumovirus (CMV), and banana streak badnavirus (BSV). Of these five viruses, BSV is reported to be the major virus problem affecting banana production in Uganda. The other four cause yield losses of considerable economic importance in various banana cultivars. Banana production has in the last five years declined significantly, mainly due to pests and diseases attacks. Prof. Mateete Bekunda, a soils scholar at Makerere University said the increament in tempereatures had made most parts of the country’s soils barren, and habitable to numerous pests and parasites. Uganda’s temperatures have increased by between 0.2 and 0.3 degrees centigrade in the last 50 years, giving rise to various crops and animals diseases, according to Prof. David Kabaasa, the Head of Veterinary Medicine at Makerere University. He said more crops and animals pests were likely to occur. On average, many small-scale farmers in Uganda produce about 800kg of grain especially beans and maize per hectare as a result of poor soils compared to 10 tonnes in other parts of the world with chemical fertiliser use. |
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