Kasese farmers count losses as strange disease ravages banana plantations

KASESE – Banana farmers in Kasese district are counting losses after a strange viral disease attacked their plantations, exposing the farmers’ households to hunger and poverty.

Agricultural experts in the district say the disease troubling the farmers is the Banana Bunchy Top Virus [BBTV] which causes severe stunting to the infected plant, narrow leaves, chlorotic leaf margins, and dark-green streaks on petioles and midribs.

The affected plant also shows a bunchy and choked appearance, a plant rarely bears fruits and when they do, the fruit is stunted and twisted.

The disease was detected in 2020 and in July, the Ministry of Agriculture, Animal Industry and Fisheries raised a red flag when the same disease caused havoc on banana plantations in West Nile, Rwenzori, and Tooro subregions.

The disease is suspected to have spread to Uganda from the neighbouring Democratic Republic of Congo and Rwanda.

In Kasese, five sub-counties of Bwera, Isanga, Karambi, Nyakiyumbu, and Kitholhu have so been hit with the disease.

Robert Bwambale a farmer in Karambi Sub-county said production has drastically reduced in the last three years because of the disease.

Bwambale said smallholder farmers continue to lack access to healthy planting materials and information on pests and diseases. He called for emergency interventions to control diseases like the BBTV, saying his monthly earnings from his banana plantation have sharply reduced.

“I used to earn more than Shs 800,000 from my plantation every month but this amount has gone down to about Shs 100,000 after the new disease attacked my farm,” he said.

He said he started growing bananas in the year 2000 and had been getting good money from the enterprise until 2018 when a strange disease attacked his plantation, leading to very low yields.

He appealed to government to urgently intervene so that the farmers’ banana plantations are saved from the disease.

An extension worker for Karambi and Ihandiro sub-counties, Moris Muhindo said the disease is threatening food security in the area because matooke is one the most consumable food crop.

He said they have been advising farmers to get rid of the affected plantation as one way of taming the spread of the disease but many are not willing to cut down the infected banana plants

He said the disease is very deadly because it spreads quickly.

A senior agriculture inspector quarantine and import regulation in the ministry of Agriculture, Joab Tugume said the ministry is raising awareness regarding the spread and control measures to curb the disease.

According to the 2009 findings by the Uganda Bureau of Statistics [UBOS], the western region of Uganda produces up to 68 percent of the country’s bananas.

With the region still dealing with the banana wilt, the new banana poses a serious threat of hunger, poverty, and malnutrition in the region.

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