KABAROLE -Banana farmers in Kabarole district are counting losses as a strange disease continues to devastate plantations for close to a year now.
A disease which agriculturalists say is banana rust thrips, leads to discolouration of the banana fruit peel from green to rusty brown or purplish in colour.
Although the disease does not seem to affect the fruit pulp which remains edible, customers are often unwilling to buy the sick bananas, leaving farmers stranded with unwanted produce.
Lydia Natugonza a farmer from Rwengaju Sub-county said bananas which have turned rusty do not attract customers because of their appearance and end up being consumed by the owners.
“Nobody is willing to buy such a bunch of banana because it has an ugly appearance. Some people think such a rust bunch of banana should not be consumed thinking it may not safe,” Natugonza said.
She added that customers willing to buy the diseased bananas offer very prices, which is a loss to farmers.
“We are actually very stuck with our bananas that have turned brown despite the fact that this is not the pick season for the crop,” she said.
The Rwengaju Sub-county chairperson LCIII, Abdallah Agaba said production of bananas has also reduced because of the disease that attacks the crop at an early stage.
“The affected fruit first changes to grey, dusty then turns rusty though it continues to grow, sometimes the peel cracks. This has affected farmers’ income because nobody is willing to buy such bananas,” Agaba said.
Agaba appealed to government, especially the Ministry of Agriculture Animal Husbandry and Fisheries [MAAIF] to help farmers.
Farmers said they have on several occasions sought help from extension officers from their area but they are yet to receive any help.
The Kichwamba Sub-county chairperson LCIII, Jack Magezi said as leaders they are working with the district authorities to find a lasting solution to the problem.
Magezi said though they were told that the disease would disappear by itself, they are not seeing any change but rather the situation is deteriorating.
The Kabarole district senior agricultural officer, Fred Isingoma said the samples of the diseased bananas were taken to MAAIF for testing and are waiting for results.
He however noted that the disease spreads faster during the rainy season and advised farmers to keep their plantations clean.
“As farmers, you need to practice proper agronomic practices and plantation hygiene to reduce the spread of the disease. Make sure you practice mulching and proper spacing and don’t forget to keep your plantations out of weeds which also work as hiding places for pests causing the disease,” he said.
Isingoma noted that the diseased bananas are edible with no health effects despite being hard.
Judith Nyamata, an agriculturalist in food and agri-business at Kabarole Research and Resource Centre said the rust thrips are small yellow insects with narrow fringed wings, which feed on the green surface of the banana fingers.
She said although some of the affected bananas can be eaten despite lacking palatability, buyers cannot buy them because they don’t look clean.
Though the cause of the banana rust thrips is not yet known, agriculturalists suspect weather changes could be responsible for the disease.
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