Banana, cassava diseases attack 47 districts
The government is to fund the research into banana wilt and cassava streak disease, President Yoweri Museveni has said. He made the announcement on Wednesday while meeting with district chairpersons, extension workers, Chief Administrative Officer s, district agricultural officers, farmers and minis...
- The President of the Republic of Uganda teams up with Dr. Wilberforce Tushemereirwe, Program Leader National Banana Research Program in the fight against the deadly Banana Xanthomonas wilt
- Museveni Advises Busonga Leaders on Banana Bactieral Wilt
- First Lady advices farmers on Banana Bacterial Wilt preventions
New matooke variety empowers households
By John Kasozi
EVA Musinguzi, Winifred Ntawera and Keziah Ruharuza cannot believe that the newly-released two-inch Kiwangaazi banana variety they despised is empowering them.
The trio, who are part of the 16 contact farmers for the National Banana Research Programme under the National Agricultural Res...
welcome
Welcome to the website of the National Banana Research Program. As one of the research arms of NARO, the National Banana Research Program is mandated to carry out research on Banana in Uganda. Its goal is to enhance banana productivity and utilization through development and promotion of technologies for integrated management of weevil, black Sigatoka and nematodes.
Enhanced banana productivity will, in turn, contribute to the Uganda national goal of improving food security and household income of people living under severe poverty. The NBRP comprises a team of interdisplinary scientists and students working closely to ensure that Banana improvement is approached from a wholistic perspective. The following working groups make up the Banana research team; Breeders, Pathologists, Socioeconomists, Biotechnologists, Nematologists and Entomologists.
This section is being updated, please check later
Banana Stem Weevil
The banana stem weevil (BSW) or banana pseudostem borer, Odoiporus longicollis Oliver (Coleoptera: Curculionidae) is one of themost important pests of bananas and plantains. The adult weevils are black-coloured and measure 23-39 mm. Red-coloured morphs of theBSW are also encountered in certain banana-growing areas of India. Based on mating studies, it has been concluded that the colour difference is notdue to sexual dimorphism but is a phenomenon of non-sex limited variation and of sympatry (Dutt and Maiti 1972).
The weevils are predominantlynocturnal in habit, although during cloudy days and cooler months they may fly during the daytime. They often confine themselves within the pseudostem and in the decomposing tissues of harvested pseudostems. All life stages of the weevil are present throughout the year in the infested plant. Adults are strong fliers and in this way, move from plant to plant.
The BSW has a long life span and many adults live for a year. The sex ratio of adults encountered in banana gardens is 1:1.17 (male:female) (Dutt and Maiti 1972).
The sensory structures present on the rostrum of the weevils a key for sex differentiation (Nahif et al. 2000). The pre-oviposition period is 15-30 days and the adult weevils mate throughout the day and night. The mean number of eggs laid by a female following a single matingis nine eggs at the rate of one egg per day.
Gravid females lay yellowish white, elliptical eggs by inserting the ovipositorsthrough ovipositional slits cut by the rostrum on the outer epidermal layer of the leaf sheath of the pseudostem down to the air chambers.
Oviposition takes place only in the leaf sheaths. The number of eggs deposited is considerably reduced as the number of weevils
increases, indicating the existence of a spacing pheromone, epideictic compounds which act as a deterrent to
conspecific females (Ranjith and Lalitha 2001).
Projects
