National Banana Research Program

Banana tissue culture is a first-generation plant biotechnology tool used to curtail the spread of pests and diseases, especially fungal and bacterial wilt diseases, by making disease-free planting material available for the propagation of new crops. Simple tissue culture techniques such as shoot-tip and embryo culture are well-developed in Africa and have greatly improved banana breeding, whereby the shoot meristem is extracted from the male flower and aseptically multiplied into hundreds of shoots for eventual planting in fields.