Preface
Since most developing countries are situated in the Tropics or Subtropics andexposed to harsh conditions in terms of natural, social and economic
environment, the level of productivity of crops is generally low and unstable.
Under such circumstances the developing countries are endeavoring to increase
food production, while struggling to cope with population issues and thepoverty. In these efforts, because the technology developed in advanced
countries situated in the temperate zone are often not applicable directly, it isnecessary in the agricultural cooperation with developing countries to carry out
in advance the surveys and studies on the technologies applicable to local
environment by taking full account of the specific geographical and social
conditions of a location. Actually we receive frequently the requests forcarrying out such tasks of research.
Consequently our Association, in the framework of activities of survey andstudy, has been engaged for a long time in implementing projects of research on
the technologies for tropical agriculture, the results of which have beensummarized in the publication of the “Tropical Agriculture Series” (consistingof “Manuals of Tropical Agriculture” and “Manuals of Tropical Crops”). Since
2006 we are implementing the project of “Studies on subsistence crops”,
assisted by a subsidy program of the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and
Fisheries, in order to collect and analyze the basic fact data and the useful
information for improving production technologies on the crops grownprincipally for subsistence purposes, and at the same time to explore newpotentials for the commodities. As principal food crops in Africa, there are root
crops (cassava, yams, etc.) and cereals (maize, sorghum, millets), but this year
we focused our studies on cooking bananas that occupy the fifth place in therank of food crops of the largest consumption in Sub-Saharan Africa (data by
FAOSTAT 2003).
In the creation of this report, in order to acquire accurate and up-to-date
information, we have dispatched a field survey mission to the Republic ofUganda (hereafter Uganda) that produces the largest quantity of cooking
bananas in Sub-Saharan Africa, and at the same time a study committee(chaired by C. Kaneda) was organized at home within the Association to review
the research contents from the viewpoints of an advanced level of expertise.
This report reflects the efforts exerted by writers as well as by the committee
members. We would like to take this opportunity for expressing our deep
appreciation for them. Moreover, we acknowledge with high gratitude thecollaborative favors extended for the implementation of the project by theofficials of relevant authorities including Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry, andFisheries, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Japan International Cooperation Agency,
the Government of Uganda, and various international organizations.
Incidentally, we have also compiled a monograph “Agriculture and forestryin Uganda” that describes and discusses the current state and the issues ondevelopment of the agriculture and forestry in Uganda, which we hope that you
would also refer to at the same time.
We earnestly hope that this report shall serve as a useful reference for those
who are engaged in actual activities in situ with the mission of international
cooperation for the reduction of starved and undernourished population, theestablishment of food security, and the poverty reduction in Africa.

March 2010
Hisao Azuma
President
JAICAFAuthors
Kaori KOMATSU, Ph.D.
Associate Professor, Department of Social and Human Sciences, Facultyof Humanities and Social Sciences, Sizuoka University
Area of expertise: Ecological Anthropology
Part: Chapter I “Diversity of banana and its origin” and Chapter II
Yasuaki SATO, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor, Department of Human Life and Environment, Facultyof Human Environment, Osaka Sangyo University
Area of expertise: Ethnobotany, African Area Studies
Part: Chapter I “2. East African Highland banana” and Chapter III
Koichi KITANISHI, Ph.D.
Associate Professor, Faculty of Education, Yamaguchi University
Area of expertise: Ecological Anthropology
Part: Chapter I “3. Plantain subgroup”
Kunihiko SUZUKI, Ph.D.
Fomer Professor, Department of Bioproduction Technology, JuniorCollege of Tokyo University of Agriculture
Area of expertise: Pomology
Part: Chapter IV
Florence Isabirye MURANGA, Ph.D.
Lecturer, Department of Food Science and Technology, Makerere
University, Uganda
Director, Presidential Initiative on Banana Industrial Development (PIBID),
UgandaArea of expertise: Food Science and Technology
Part: Chapter VMembers of the Technical Committee
Chukichi KANEDA, Ph.D.*
Technical Adviser, Japan Association for International Collaboration ofAgriculture and Forestry (JAICAF).
Itaru KOZAKI, Ph.D.
Technical Adviser, Japan Association for International Collaboration ofAgriculture and Forestry (JAICAF).
Keiko SANO
Director, East Africa Division 2, Africa Department, Japan International
Cooperation Agency (JICA)
Kunihiko SUZUKI, Ph.D.
Fomer Professor, Department of Bioproduction Technology, JuniorCollege of Tokyo University of Agriculture
Nobuyuki KURAUCHI, Ph.D.
Associate Professor, College of Bioresources sciences, Nihon University
Shinji OGAWA
Expert on the Social Forestry
Siaw Onwona-Agyeman, Ph.D.
Associate Professor, Environmentally-friendly Agricultural System
Development, Tokyo University of Agriculture and Technology
Ryuzo NISHIMAKI, Ph.D.
Expert of JICA Project in Uganda
Yasuaki SATO, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor, Department of Human Life and Environment, Facultyof Human Environment, Osaka Sangyo University
Note: Order of the alphabets
Chairperson indicated by *Bract scar
Bract

StigmaAntherStyle

Male flower
Compoundtepal
Free tepal

Leaf

PetiolePeduncle, Axis

bunch ＞ hand ＞ finger

Pseudostem (Leaf sheath)
SuckerRhizomeRoot

Fig. 1 Organs of banana
Original: IPGRI, INIBAP and CIRAD 1996, Descriptors for banana (Musa spp.).

Petiole
5cm

B

A

5 cm

B

A

Male bud

1cm

Free tepal
1cm

x

x
y

Bract

5cm

y

A

B

Ovule arrangement

1cm

A

B

Fig. 2 Some characters used in taxonomic scoring of banana cultivars toestimate the genome types
Original: Stover, R.H. and N.W. Simmonds 1987, Bananas, 3rd ed., Longman, Essex.

Table of Contents
Preface ............................................................................................................... ϸ
Authors............................................................................................................... ϺMember of the Technical Committee ............................................................... ϻ
Fig. 1 Organs of banana .................................................................................... ϼ
Fig. 2 Some characters used in taxonomic scoring of banana cultivars toestimate the genome types........................................................................... Ͻ
Chapter I. Taxonomy and genealogy of cooking bananas: diversity in genome
types and cultivars .......................................................................... 1
1. Diversity of banana and its origin .............................................................. 1
1) Taxonomy and genealogy ................................................................... 1
2) Origin and dissemination of banana ................................................... 43) Distribution.......................................................................................... 7
2. East African Highland banana.................................................................... 101) Classification ....................................................................................... 102) Distribution and diversity.................................................................... 18
3. Plantain subgroup ....................................................................................... 20
1) Classification ....................................................................................... 20
2) Distribution and diversity.................................................................... 27
Chapter II. Cultivation and utilization of cooking bananas in Africa.............. 40
1. General situation......................................................................................... 40
1) Systems of cropping and utilization..................................................... 40
2) Production and yield by zone............................................................... 41
2. East Africa – Indian Ocean Complex ........................................................ 43
3. Central and West Africa – Plantain ............................................................ 48
Chapter III. Cultivation and utilization of cooking bananas in Uganda.......... 60
1. Production and distribution ........................................................................ 60
1) Production ............................................................................................. 60
2) Distribution ........................................................................................... 62
2. Cropping system......................................................................................... 661) Home garden system ............................................................................ 66
2) Cultivation methods.............................................................................. 68
3. Maintenance of banana diversity ............................................................... 75
1) Cultivars and utilization methods......................................................... 75
2) Selection of cultivars ............................................................................ 77
4. Utilization.................................................................................................... 77
1) Use for food .......................................................................................... 782) Other uses.............................................................................................. 87
Chapter IV. Issues in banana cultivation technologies in Uganda................... 92
1. Pests in bananas and their control ................................................................... 92
1) Nematodes .............................................................................................. 922) Banana weevils........................................................................................ 100
3) Other pests .............................................................................................. 106
2. Diseases of banana......................................................................................... 107
1) Diseases causing leaf spots on banana ....................................................... 108
2) Fusarium wilt (Panama disease) ............................................................... 110
3) Matoke wilt ............................................................................................. 112
4) Banana streak virus, BSV......................................................................... 113
5) Banana bacterial wilt................................................................................ 115
6) Other diseases.......................................................................................... 116
3. Soil fertility management ............................................................................... 117
1) Suitable soil conditions for banana cultivation ........................................... 117
2) Management of soil fertility and fertilization ............................................. 117
3) Farmers’ practices of soil management...................................................... 118
4. Breeding techniques....................................................................................... 119
1) Hybridization breeding............................................................................. 119
2) Breeding by cell culture ........................................................................... 123
5. Raising young nursery plants.......................................................................... 124
1) Raising young plants by biotechnology ..................................................... 124
2) Planting of young plants raised by division of suckers.............................. 125
3) Culture and distribution of young plants by private sector .......................... 127

Chapter V. Developments in banana processing and utilisation of the East
African highland cooking cultivars................................................ 134
1. Introduction................................................................................................. 134
2. Post harvest research................................................................................... 136
1) Characterisation of physicochemical properties of Matooke raw
material ................................................................................................ 137
2) The processing characteristics of Matooke.......................................... 139
3. The Presidential Initiative on Banana Industrial Development(PIBID) ..................................................................................................... 143
1) Backgroung ......................................................................................... 143
2) The framework of PIBID ..................................................................... 145
3) Strategy for streamlining of the PIBID value chain ............................ 148

Chapter I. Taxonomy and genealogy of cooking bananas:
diversity in genome types and cultivars
1. Diversity of banana and its origin
1) Taxonomy and genealogy
 Banana is a vegetative and perennial herbaceous plant domesticated by selection
from several wild species of the genus Musa of Musaceae family1. Among speciesof the genus Musa, most of banana plants grown as food crop are included in thesection of Eumusa and descend either from one of two wild species of Musaacuminata Colla and Musa balbisiana Colla or from both of them (Phto 1-1). 2

Photo 1-1 Ancestral wild species of banana
Left: Musa acuminata
Right: Musa balbisiana
Credit: Left, Kaori Komatsu; Right, Koichi Kitanishi㻌㻌㻌㻌㻌㻌㻌㻌㻌㻌㻌㻌㻌㻌㻌㻌㻌㻌㻌㻌㻌㻌㻌㻌㻌㻌㻌㻌㻌㻌㻌㻌㻌㻌㻌㻌㻌㻌㻌㻌㻌㻌㻌㻌㻌㻌1
Ensete (Ensete ventricosum (Welw.) E.E. Cheesman) also belongs to Musaceae and isclosely-related to Musa spp. In Africa it is cultivated in Ethiopia for the consumption of starchcontained in vegetative parts as the staple food. Wild species of ensete grow in the zone
stretching from Ethiopia to Central Africa.
2

However, another group of domesticated banana called Fe’i is distributed in New Guinea
and the Pacific islands. These bananas belong to Australimusa and are called Fe’i banana. Fe’i
banana is characterized by the trait that fruit clusters stand vertically upward, while in thosebananas of Eumusa section they grow horizontally or downward.

One of the most important characters of cultivated banana is that it fruits byparthenocarpy and therefore it is propagated by vegetative means instead of by seeds.
The genome types of cultivated bananas of Eumusa section are denoted as AA, AB(diploids), AAA, AAB, or ABB (triploids), depending on the combinations between
the genome type of Musa acuminata (AA) and that of Musa balbisiana (BB).
These genome types have been so far estimated based on characters. Fruits andvegetative parts are larger in triploids than in diploid, and those plants composed
more of genes from Musa balbisiana are characterized by the presence of lessremarkable blotches in pseudostem, lower bract shoulders, and rectangular fruit
fingers. Simmonds has devised the procedures to estimate the genome type ofindividual plants based on differences of characters between Musa acuminata andMusa balbisiana by quantifying each trait by a score and accumulating it. Later on
the score sheet that Simmonds and his colleagues have improved has been
considered to be useful (Fig. 1-1). Currently, the genome identification by meansof gene analysis is being developed by various research institutions.

1. Pseudostem color: score 1 2 3 4 5Distinctive brown or black blotches／very slight or no blotches
2.Petiolar canal: score 1 2 3 4 5Lower portion with scarious wing hairs, erect fringes not clasping pseudostem／
clasping pseudostem
3. Peduncle: score 1 2 3 4 5Normally downy or hairy／glabrous
4. Pedicels: score 1 2 3 4 5
 Fruit finger base is short／long
5. Ovules:score 1 2 3 4 5Each cluster with two regular rows／each cluster with four irregular rows
6. Bract shoulder:score 1 2 3 4 5#x=cm, y =
 Shoulder position usually high (x/y < 0.28)／usually low (x/y > 0.30)
7. Bract curling:score 1 2 3 4 5Bract reflex and roll back after opening／bract present but not reflex

cm

8. Bract shape:score 1 2 3 4 5
 Spear head shaped or narrowly ovate and tapering beyond shoulder／broadly ovate, nottapering
score 1 2 3 4 5
9. Bract apex:
Apex acute／obtuse
10. Bract color:
score 1 2 3 4 5
 red, dull purple or yellow outside, dull purple or yellow inside／distinctive
brownish-purple outside; brown crimson inside
11.Bract color fading: score 1 2 3 4 5
 Usually fades to yellow towards the base／inside bract color continuous to basescore 1 2 3 4 5
12. Bract scars:
13. Free tepal of male flower: score 1 2 3 4 5
 Lower part of apex variably corrugated／rarely corrugated
14. Male flower color:
score 1 2 3 4 5 Creamy white／variably flushed with pink
15. Stigma color:
score 1 2 3 4 5Orange or rich yellow ／ cream or pale yellow/pale pink・Criteria of Simmonds: 15 – 23 → Acuminata strain (AA, AAA, AAAA), 26 – 46 → AAB,
around 49 →AB, 59 – 63 →ABB, around 67 →ABBB (Stover and Simmonds 1987)
・Examination of degree of agreement between the estimated genome types based on theevaluation list by Banana Researchers Network of Japan and those based on documented data
and the identification by local banana scientists has revealed that the probability of agreement
is higher when more than 10 morphological characters out of 15 in the list are evaluated.
Moreover, since 10 characters out of the 15 concern those of male bud, it is needed to observe
carefully the morphology of male bud, in order to improve the accuracy of estimation.

Fig. I – 1 Criteria of classification by Simmonds
Source: prepared by S. Maruo based on Simmonds and Shepherd 1955

In the zones stretching from India through Southeast Asia to New Guinea, wild
banana species bearing fertile seeds are growing spontaneously. However, thosebanana species found in Africa, most parts of the Pacific and in South America are
cultivated ones either without seeds or sometimes with seeds that are sterile andessentially no wild species of any kind grows there. Banana is a vegetative crop.
Suckers of banana are clones of an original plant, essentially inheriting the identicalgenes that the parent stock has. Diversification of cultivars occurs, except for that
due to crossing of wild and/or cultivated plants that still have fertile seeds, only either
through the human intervention of selection and conservation of variations in forms
caused by mutations, or with respect to different areas, by the introduction of newcultivars from different areas.
2) Origin and dissemination of banana
Although the exact center of origin of domesticated banana has not been
identified, it is generally assumed that it has originated from the area around the
Malay Peninsula from the fact that the areas of distribution of wild species of Musaacuminata are found around the Peninsula 30) 3.
Wild Musa acuminata grows mostly in the Malay Peninsula, Indonesia, thePhilippines, while wild Musa balbisiana grows mostly in Northeastern India and thePhilippines. It is assumed that wild Musa acuminata had by mutation evolved into aseedless strain with the trait of parthenocarpic fruit set to become the origin of
diploid cultivars (AA). In the case of banana, the domestication signifies theprocesses in which humans first happened to find by chance an edible seedlessbanana and continued to cultivate and manage the same stock over the generations
to establish a cropping system. Subsequently, presumably based on the autodiploidsof acuminata, autotriploids, AAA, or hybrids between Musa acuminata and Musabalbisiana, AB, AAB and ABB, were generated by hybridization and somatic
mutation.4
㻌㻌㻌㻌㻌㻌㻌㻌㻌㻌㻌㻌㻌㻌㻌㻌㻌㻌㻌㻌㻌㻌㻌㻌㻌㻌㻌㻌㻌㻌㻌㻌㻌㻌㻌㻌㻌㻌㻌㻌㻌㻌㻌㻌㻌㻌
3
There are several arguments about the possibility of independent occurrences of the first
domestication of banana in other areas, particularly the possibility of the first cultivation in
New Guinea where the variation of existing varieties is great.33)
4

Regarding the genesis of triploid bananas, there are different views. Some researchers
advocate the following view: A tetraploid Musa acuminata (AAAA) was generated by anabnormal disjunction of the chromosome in a fertile diploid. Then, autotriploid AAA wasgenerated by crossing the tetraploid (AAAA) and the diploid (AA). Hybrid triploid AAB isgenerated by mating tetraploid Musa acuminata (AAAA) with diploid Musa balbisiana (BB).

The center of origin and propagation routes of banana have not yet been
completely identified, but Simmonds et al. have drawn up a diagram to illustrate thecenters of origin and diversity of cultivars. It suggests the following hypotheses: theorigin of Musa acuminata diploid AA is located around the Malay Peninsula; East
African coastal areas and New Guinea together comprise the second center ofdiversity of cultivars; Malaysia is also a center of diversity of Musa acuminata
autotriploid AAA, with East African highlands being the second center; hybrid AB
is a small group that originated in India; AAB originated mostly in India, and one
genealogy originated in eastern Malaysia, spread to the Pacific Islands anddiversified there to derive numerous cultivars; ABB also possibly originated in India
with some cultivars from eastern Malaysia 30) .
Although Simmonds, for no apparent reason, undervalued the existence of triploidMusa balbisiana (BBB) in the Philippines, certain researchers appreciated thePhilippines as the origin of hybrid genome types where many unique cultivars of thetypes of ABB and BBB are distributed and wild species of Musa balbisiana grow.
21)

The results of past studies on the history of hybrid bananas can be summarized asfollows: AAB and AB might have originated in India; ABB, in India and thePhilippines; BBB, also in the Philippines. In other words, Musa acuminata (AA)was domesticated in the areas around the Malay Peninsula, then hybridized withMusa balbisiana (BB) in the Philippines and in India, and then spread westward
toward Africa and eastward toward the New Guinea and the Pacific Islands, and to
all the humid tropics and subtropics of the Old World before the “discovery” of the㻌㻌㻌㻌㻌㻌㻌㻌㻌㻌㻌㻌㻌㻌㻌㻌㻌㻌㻌㻌㻌㻌㻌㻌㻌㻌㻌㻌㻌㻌㻌㻌㻌㻌㻌㻌㻌㻌㻌㻌㻌㻌㻌㻌㻌㻌㻌㻌㻌㻌㻌㻌㻌㻌㻌㻌㻌㻌㻌㻌㻌㻌㻌㻌㻌㻌㻌㻌㻌㻌㻌㻌㻌㻌㻌㻌㻌㻌㻌㻌㻌㻌㻌㻌㻌㻌㻌㻌㻌㻌㻌㻌㻌㻌㻌㻌㻌㻌㻌㻌㻌㻌㻌㻌㻌㻌
These researchers emphasize the essential role of tetraploid as the intermediary for derivationof various hybrid varieties. 21) Alternatively, another view argues that the triploid genome
type (AAA) was generated by abnormal meiosis in crossing of acuminata diploids (AA). Thisview has been adopted in many textbooks. 4) 7) 29) It is based on the fact that the occurrence ofwild tetraploids is very rare. The diploid BB is supposed to have been domesticated while
maintaining fertility and ability of bearing seeds, from which BBB was generated in a manner
similar to either one of the hypotheses proposed for triploid acuminata AAA.
New World. 5 Moreover, after the Age of Geographical Discovery, diverse
cultivars were brought to South America principally from Central Africa and West
Africa.
In addition to these bananas, Fe’i banana is grown in eastern Indonesia, New
Guinea and the Pacific islands. There were certain areas in the Pacific islands where
Fe’i banana played an important role.
Among bananas of the same genome type, diverse variations in characters areobserved. As the term for a group of classification that is stable genetically and has
established agronomic status, “cultivar” is employed, and the group of cultivars thathas been classified by Simmonds et al., based on the similarity of characteristics, isdenoted as “cultivar group (subgroup)”. As well-known subgroups, there are
Mysore (AAB) and Bluggoe (ABB), etc. as well as Cavendish and Gros Michel.
Subgroups range from those recognized as having diverse variations to those withvery few variations. When the distribution of banana on a global scale is considered,the distinction by individual cultivars as the unit of classification is too narrow andtherefore genome types and subgroups make effective units for analysis. Table 1-1
shows subgroups currently recognized widely in the world.
 In the meantime, people who have cultivated and utilized banana for a long time
have distinguished different types of banana and given specific names (vernacularnames) to them by recognizing delicate differences in morphology, taste andmaturity period. In such a case, “cultivar” is used as the traditional classification unitthat people involved directly with production and consumption have differentiatedand named. Hence, “cultivars” reflect cultural characteristics of different cultures ofbanana cultivation.
Incidentally, the description of species, genome type, and cultivar family differs
greatly for each paper and author. In this paper, we have used the description of
species and genome type 6 reported by Simmonds et al. 29) For the description of㻌㻌㻌㻌㻌㻌㻌㻌㻌㻌㻌㻌㻌㻌㻌㻌㻌㻌㻌㻌㻌㻌㻌㻌㻌㻌㻌㻌㻌㻌㻌㻌㻌㻌㻌㻌㻌㻌㻌㻌㻌㻌㻌㻌㻌㻌5
A certain paper of recent publication argues that the center of origin is the zone covering
New Guinea, Indonesia, and the Philippines. 15)
6
The hybrid strains are sometimes described as Musa x paradisiaca. 38).
cultivars, we have adopted the nomenclature based on the conventionalclassification of local people.
3) Distribution
Regarding cultivar groups for export and table banana, Gros Michel among AAA
dominated the international trade as a cultivar group for export in the early half ofthe 20th Century. However, the cultivar suffered from devastating damage due to thefungal Panama disease and was replaced by Cavendish that has continued todominate the market since the latter half of the 20th Century
Meantime, with respect to bananas for self-sufficiency and local consumption, thedistribution of cultivars and cultivar groups is rather complicated, and in certain
cases so much so that the composition differs greatly even between two neighboring
localities. According to the results of surveys conducted by the study group of“Banana Researchers Network of Japan”, it has been revealed that in Asia thecomposition of cultivars by genome types varies within the same country or
between two neighboring islands 13) (Fig. I -2).
Rough description of the distribution of genome types of banana is as follows:
In the zone stretching from Southeast Asia to East African coast, cultivatedbananas include a wide range of genome types, AA, AAA, AAB, AB, ABB, BBB,
BB, etc. Instead, the number of cultivars or cultivar groups belonging to a specificgenotype found in an area is small. On the contrary, in the interior of Africa, we areable to observe a completely different pattern of distribution of genotypes.
In the East African highlands, the cultivars of cooking type with the triploid Musaacuminata AAA genotype account for a high proportion. These cultivars of cooking
banana are of a type specific to this area that cannot be found in other areas such as
Asia, and called “East African Highland banana (AAA-EA)”. This classification
shall be described in more detail in the following section. In Central and Western
Africa, cultivars are uniquely composed of those of plantain type of the AAB hybrid,with the presence of many plantain banana cultivars found only in this area. The
cultivars of this subgroup are characterized by traits such as slender arched fruits andfurther regrouped into three secondary subgroups, namely, Horn plantain, False
Horn plantain, French plantain30), or into four secondary subgroups by adding
French Horn type. For further details, please refer to Section 3 of the present chapter.
Incidentally, the term “plantain” as a unit of classification is used in dual senses. In
the case of its usage as a general term, it is often employed to signify cooking
bananas (as in the case of referring to a commodity group as “banana and plantain”).
On the other hand, like in the preceding paragraph, it is sometimes used to represent
the subgroup of banana species possessing the genome type of AAB.
Table I-1 Well-known cultivar groupsAA
Bande
Mjenga maua
Mhali hali
Paka
Palembang
Pisang jaribuaya
Pisang lilin
PukuteSikuzani
Sucrier
TongatZahalaAAA

AAB

Maja maoli
CavendishMysoreDwalf Cavendish
Pisang kelat
Giant Cavendish
Pisang raja
-Grain nain
Plantain-Umalog-Pisang masak Hijau -Horn Plantain-Robusta-FrenchPlantain
Gros michel
Pome-Freehill
Silk-Glengoffe

AB

ABB

Ney
PoovanBluggoe
Pisangawa-Highgate-Pink Jamaica-Plantain Jamaica
Red
Green red

Source: INBIAP information/internal document of document service
Designations below country names represent those of ethnic groups or localities.
In parentheses, right figures for total numbers of cultivars, left for numbers of cultivars
excluding those of unknown genome types or with two candidate genomes.

Fig. I-2 Proportion of numbers of cultivars by genome types in different areasin Asia and Africa
Source: Komatsu et al. 2006
㻌

There are several arguments with regard to the history of banana’s arrival in
Africa. Many scholars agree on the view that it arrived there in waves at several
separate occasions. The points of disagreement among them concern, firstly thequestion on route of arrival, namely, whether the point of entry was in Northern
Africa like Ethiopia, along the Eastern African coast, or in Madagascar after arrivingfrom Indonesia, and secondarily the question on the timing and manner of arrival,
namely when and in what sequence the entry at those locations took place. Many
scholars believe that banana first arrived in either East African coast or in
Northeastern Africa such as Ethiopia and afterward spread to other areas, in which
firstly plantain bananas with the genotype of AAB migrated from East Africa toCentral and West Africa, and later the ancestral races of East African Highland
bananas arrived and spread.7


2. East African Highland banana
1) Classification(1) Morphological classification
East African Highland bananas (AAA-EA) are classified as a subgroup of the
autotriploid acuminata (AAA) and distributed over humid areas in East Africanhighlands (Great Lakes Region of East Africa). This subgroup has been traditionallyreferred to as Lujugira-Mutika (subgroup). This has been because Shepherd placedthese cultivars in two sets of the botanical taxonomy, i.e., Mutika in which a bunchhangs, has fingers relatively large and the apical part maintains bottleneck form at
maturity, and Lujugira in which the fingers are short and the apex does not havebottleneck form. 26) In this report it is denoted as AAA-EA hereafter.
Among cultivars in the subgroup of triploid AAA, other well-known cultivars
include Cavendish, Gros Michel, and Green-Red, as presented in Table I-1 4) 30) .
As characteristic differences in appearance of AAA-EA in comparison with thesecultivars, the following 5 sets of morphological description can be cited:䐟 The surface of pseudostem is glossy and the basal part of petiole is covered withan extremely large number of blackish or brownish speckles due to pigment; 䐠 theleaf blade is broad and colored in dark-green; 䐡 a large number of tears occurring
along lateral veins are observed; 䐢 the bracts of male buds are colored in brownish
purple; 䐣 anthers of stamen (pistil) are colored in pink. Incidentally, the fruit flesh isin a color between milky white and brown, smooth and sticky to touch, and turns toyellow when cooked. In the use as food, while other cultivars in the same subgroupare mostly consumed as table banana, AAA-EA banana is cooked and consumed as
the staple food or processed into an beer or spirits (except in the Western Ethiopia
where it is eaten fresh).
㻌㻌㻌㻌㻌㻌㻌㻌㻌㻌㻌㻌㻌㻌㻌㻌㻌㻌㻌㻌㻌㻌㻌㻌㻌㻌㻌㻌㻌㻌㻌㻌㻌㻌㻌㻌㻌㻌㻌㻌㻌㻌㻌㻌㻌㻌
7
Rossel has reviewed and summarized systematically these hypotheses. 24)
One of the principal factors to determine the distribution of this subgroup isaltitude. All of major growing areas are located at an altitude of between 1,000 m
and 2,000 m. It is distributed in vast areas lying across many borders, specifically:
Eastern, Central and Western Uganda; Western and Central Kenya; in Tanzania,
areas around Lake Victoria in the Northwest, around Lake Tanganyika – Lake
Malawi in the South, and Mountains in the North; the almost whole of Rwanda andBurundi; Eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo; and Southwestern Ethiopia(Fig. I-3).
 Variations among cultivars within the AAA-EA are great, and particularly a wide
range of variation can be observed in inflorescences. For instance, the apical partof fingers varies from that with a bottleneck form to that with rounded shape, thefruit length from approximately 5 cm to 30 cm, and the bract color varies from red,
yellow to one approaching green-yellow, while brownish purple prevails mostly10).
Since no plant that possesses the same morphological characteristics as those in
AAA-EA has yet been
identified in other parts of theworld, it is assumed that theexisting
variations
havedeveloped as a result of theearly introduction of a limited
number of original plants fromother areas and the subsequentsomaclonal mutations repeatedover the years, and not by the
initial introduction of a large
number of different types ofplants from other areas whichhave remained as they are in
Fig I-3 Distribution of AAA-EA
the inland highlands of East Source: Modified by Y. Sato based on Karamura et al.
Africa. This is the very reason 1998


why this area is called the second center of diversification of banana.30)
The subgroup AAA-EA is multiplying morphological variations in a complex
manner, and the manifestation of those characteristics occurs often under the
influence of natural environment. Moreover, in a multitude of languages, thevariations are called by different local cultivar names. Consequently, it had been
extremely difficult to identify “the identical cultivar with different names” and to
distinguish between “different cultivars with the same name”, and hence thetaxonomy for the subgroup of AAA-EA had remained an unresolved scientificsubject for many years. However, as a result of the research efforts by Karamura inwhich she described morphological characteristics of 61 traits respectively for 238
strains of the subgroup preserved under cultivation by farmers and the National
Agricultural Research Institute in Uganda, on which she conducted a multivariate
analysis, it has been revealed that those strains can be classified into 84 clones andthey apparently constitute 5 distinct sets. Karamura postulated an intermediate level
between subgroup and cultivar and referred to it as “clone-set”. 10) Namely, ataxonomic system comprising 4 classification levels, genome type (AAA), subgroup(AAA-EA), clone-set, and clone (cultivar), was proposed. In recent years, studies arebeing carried out, based on this proposed classification system, to clarify thecharacteristics of various cultivars in different countries in East Africa and to verify
the appropriateness of the system.
Table I-2 lists the traits that were effective for differentiating clone-sets andcultivars, among those adopted by this analysis. The table shows that the useful traits
for classification of clone-sets include 11 of those for describing female
inflorescence, 5 for male inflorescence and 3 for other plant organs. Furthermore, forthe classification of cultivars, i. e., lower level to clone-set, 7, 3, and 6 traits
respectively for female inflorescence, male inflorescence, and other plant organs, areof practical value. Since most of these variations cannot be found in other parts of
the world, measures have been taken to add 12 items as particular traits applied in
the case of AAA-EA in the unified descriptive items for banana in the documentsprepared by international research institutions.9) 8
For the 5 clone-sets, the nomenclature using names of typical local cultivars in
Table I-2 Traits and characteristics used in classification of clone-sets andvarieties of AAA-EA
TraitsPlant height / circumference length ofpseudostem
Sap color
Sap dripping
petiole backround color
Anthocyanin of petiole
Petiole length/width
Leaf tip twisted
Bunch orientation
Bunch shape
Bunch compactness
Finger orientation in bunch

Color of unripe pulp
Color of ripe pulp
Brown sticky excretions in pulp
Astringency/bitterness of pulp
Finger apex shapestyle on finger apex
type of persistent style on finger apex
persistence of stamen
Cracks on fingers
Finger shape
Male budpersistence of neuter flowers along rachis
Shape of male bud
waxiness of male bud
Apex of male bud
Bract imbrication

Characteristics

Useful forclassificationof clone-sets

Useful forclassificationof cultivars
○

○
○

○
○
○
○

―
Watery/milky
drips/does not drip
watery green/green/otherthroughout ventral side/
confined to margins/absent―
Present/absent
sub-horizontal/ oblique/other
Round/cylindrical//rectangular/t
runcated
Very compact/compact/lax
strongly recurved to touchrachis/ less strongly recurved/
perpendicular to rachis
White/cream/orange-brown
White/cream/orange-brownPresent/absent
Present/absent
Round/round to bottle-necked/bottle-necked
Present/absent
Fresh/dry/other
Present/absent
Present/absent
Round/rectangular/triangular/
gourd-shaped/slender
Present/absent
Present/slightly present/absent/other
Elliptical/lanceolate/oblong/cordate/ovate/otherwaxy/intermediate/non-waxy /otherPointed/ round
Present/ absent/ other

○
○
○
○
○
○

○
○
○
○
○

○

○

○

○
○
○
○
○

○
○

○

○

○

○

○
○
○

Source: Created by Y. Sato based on Karamura 1999㻌㻌㻌㻌㻌㻌㻌㻌㻌㻌㻌㻌㻌㻌㻌㻌㻌㻌㻌㻌㻌㻌㻌㻌㻌㻌㻌㻌㻌㻌㻌㻌㻌㻌㻌㻌㻌㻌㻌㻌㻌㻌㻌㻌㻌㻌
8"Descriptors for banana (Musa spp.)" were first published in 1996, and this addition wasmade after that.
Ugandan vernacular ganda, has been adopted, i.e., Mbidde, Musakala, Nakabululu,
Nakitembe and Nfuuka. Roughly described characteristics of different clone-sets
are as follows. 36)
䐟 Mbidde clone-set
While this resembles other clone-sets in appearance, fruits taste astringent and bitter
when ripe. People distinguish it from other clone-sets by the difference in its use, for
it is used uniquely as raw material for processing alcoholic beverages and juice,while others are used for preparing the staple food. Examples of cultivars include
Namadhi, Nalukira, Entanga Engambani, Engumba, Oruhuuna, andKatalibwambuzi.
䐠 Musakala clone-set
A fruit bunch as a whole is large, and fingers are arranged sparsely in it. It is most
preferred commercially. Examples of cultivars include Muvubo, Musakala, Mayovu,
Mudwale, Muturit, Lumenyamagali.
䐡 Nakabululu clone-set
Fingers are short and arranged densely in a bunch. Bunches are small but mature
early and fruits taste good. Examples of cultivars include Nakabululu, Kazirakwe,
Butobe, Mukite, Bifusi.
䐢 Nakitembe clone-set
Fingers are medium in size and arranged densely in a bunch. It is preferredcommercially. Fruits mature early and taste good.
Examples of cultivars include Nakitembe, Mbwazirume, Nakitembe Nakamaali,
Nakitembe Nakawere, Nalwera, Waikova, Enjagata, Nasaala, Oruhuuna.
䐣 Nfuuka clone-set
Fruit fingers are arranged densely in a bunch and medium in size. Fruits mature lateand the taste is not so good. Examples of cultivars include Entukura, Nassaba,
Nzirabushera, Entazinduka, Nakinnyika, Enyeru, Lusunna Kasenene,
Namakhumbu, Bukumu, Nambokho, Enyamakazi.
Table I-3 summarizes the characteristics of these clone-sets.
Moreover, in addition to the utility as criteria for describing appearance and taste,
the effectiveness of the classification by clone-sets has been recognized fordescribing other traits. For example, the ability for bearing fertile seeds differs
greatly from one clone-set to another. The results of a laboratory experiment inwhich Calcutta 4, cultivar of acuminata diploid (AA), was crossed with the cultivarsof AAA-EA have revealed that the combination with Nakabululu and Nfuukaclone-sets produced seeds at a rate higher than 50 %, but in the crossing with otherclone sets, it was difficult to obtain seeds and in the case of that with Nakitembe noseed was produced. 40) Thus it is expected that future studies will demonstrate thatthe classification based on morphological characteristics corresponds with that basedon a multitude of other plant properties as well.
Table I-3 Traits of clone-sets of AAA-EA
Clone-setFingerAstringenc
Shape ofy/bitternessof fruit
apex
flesh

Bunch
Orientation

Male budCompactness

Persistenceof bract

Lax compact(Unknown)

×○×Musakala×

BottleneckedSubhorizontal pendulous
Pendulous

Nakabululu

×

Round

sub-horizontal

Nakitembe

×Intermediate

Oblique

Lax
VeryCompact
Compact

Nfuuka×Intermediate

Oblique

Very compact

Mbidde○Round

Source: Created by Y. Sato based on Tushemereirwe et al. 2001

×

Orientationof floralaxis
Subhorizontal pendulous
Pendulous
sub
horizontal
ObliqueOblique,sigmoidKatalibwambuzi（Mbidde clone-set） Lumenyamagali（Musakala clone-set）

Bifusi（Nakabululu clone-set）

Mbwazirume（Nakitembe clone-set）(2) Molecular biological studies andtaxonomy
Molecular biological studies on thetaxonomy and lines of AAA-EA have been
conducted since the 1990s. Studies havebeen carried out for the comparison
between the morphological classificationand that based on gene analyses by meansof RAPD and/or AFLP methods.
 Pillay et al. conducted a cluster analysis
on 29 lines belonging to AAA-EA by
applying RAPD (Random Amplified
Polymorphic DNA) method, to evaluate its
Entamakazi (Nfuuka clone-set）
genetical diversity. The result demonstrated Photo I-2 Five clone-sets of
Credit: Y. Satothat the genetical diversity of the subgroup AAA-EA
as a whole is low and that RAPD method
can be applied for identifying differences among cultivars. Moreover, the result
confirmed that the analyses were not able to establish clearly the geneticaldifferences between cultivars used for brewing and those for the staple food,suggesting that there might have been genetical exchanges between the two cultivar
groups.23)
Tugume et al. applied AFLP method for the analyses on genetical diversity andclassification of chloroplast of 115 lines preserved and managed by the National
Research Institution of Uganda. 34) Firstly, it was confirmed, as in the case of
RAPD method, that the relationship between different lines is close genetically.
Then they applied the results, from the viewpoint of genome composition, forevaluating each of the aforementioned five clone-sets identified by the classification
based on analyses of morphological diversity. The study revealed the situation that,while the morphological classification and that based on genetical differences
roughly overlap each other, they still lack complete correspondence to each other.
For example, while in morphological relationship Musakala clone-set is the most
distant from Mbidde clone-set uniquely used for brewing purposes, the banana lines
for brewing cannot be distinguished from those used as the staple food according to
the analyses by AFLP method, both clone-sets not making up two distinguishable
distinct sets. Moreover, AFLP analysis showed that the relationship between
Musakala and Nakabululu was the most distant, suggesting that the analysis
reflected more intensely such morphological traits as fruit finger length and density.
The fact that the genetical analysis resulted in showing low diversity, in spite of thepresence of high morphological diversity, provides many suggestions with respect tothe origin of AAA-EA and the mechanism of its diversification. As a factor forvariations, the existence of retrotransposon can be assumed.
Recently, molecular biological studies on a Tanzanian cultivar, Muraru, assumed
to be close kin to AAA-EA, are underway by Onyango et al. 2) The progress of theresearch is hoped for from the viewpoints of contribution to the knowledge on theorigin of AAA-EA as well as the potential for application to varietal improvement of
AAA-EA.
2) Distribution and diversity
Although East African Highland bananas cover a wide area of distribution in
inland regions, neither the cultivars of their origin, their characteristics, nor the routesof their transmission at an early stage have been identified. While in the case ofplantains, there was a strong likelihood that historically there were “waves” oftransmission at several occasions from Asia to Africa, in the case of AAA-EA, it wasalso likely that it arrived in Africa only once. In archeological terms, throughmethodology of historical linguistics, it is estimated that at least as early as the 10th
century, banana was already being grown in the area lying from Uganda to Tanzania
25). Moreover, through the analysis of phytolith (silicate bodies of glass components
accumulated in cell tissues) found at archeological sites, it is being revealed latelythat bananas already existed in Uganda in the ages before Christ.19) However, theses
methods do not allow the identification of genome types or specific subgroups. Inorder to advance the research in this area, it is necessary to purse a comprehensive
approach integrating the research results in ethnobotany as well as those ofcomparative gene analyses of bananas cultivated currently in different regions.
The distribution of AAA-EA subgroup varies within the East African highlands
and the number of cultivars differs from one area to another. For example, regarding
Uganda, Tanzania and Rwanda the numbers of cultivars have been reported asfollows:
䐟 Uganda
With respect to AAA-EA, Uganda has the largest number of cultivars, along with
Tanzania. In the initial analysis by Karamura, more than 200 lines were examined,
but as a result of her team’s subsequent investigation and observation based on fieldcollection and interviews covering vast areas within the country, a total of 95
cultivars including 82 AAA- cultivars, in which an identical cultivar with different
names was counted as one, have been identified. 6)
䐠 Tanzania
According to the survey by Maruo, in the villages of ethnic group of Haya, 72
banana cultivars were confirmed in a village, out of which some 60 cultivars were of
the AAA-EA type.20) The result of a study conducted by the same procedures as
those in Uganda, confirmed the existence of a total of 107 cultivars including 82
AAA-EA cultivars.5)
䐡 Rwanda According to Nsabimana, cultivars of bananas classifiable into genome types of
AA, AB, AAA, AAB, and ABB are cultivated in Rwanda, and apparently they,
except those of AB and AAA types, have been introduced there relatively recently.
The breakdown by clone-set of AAA-EA lines collected and preserved by Institut
des Sciences Agronomiques du Rwanda (ISAR) is as follows: 21 cultivars for
Mbidde, 5 for Musakala, 8 for Nakabululu, 8 for Nakitembe, and 13 for Nfuuka22).
Incidentally, the border line between the zone of cultivation mainly of AAB
plantains and that mainly of AAA-EA bananas corresponds to the western fringe ofthe Great Rift Valley lying dozens of km away to the west from the border between
Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of the Congo and that between Uganda andthe latter.

3. Plantain subgroup1) Classification(1) Morphological classification
Plantain is a subgroup of hybrid triploid AAB bananas generated by hybridization
between Musa acuminata and Musa balbisiana. Plantain is distributed widely over
the world from Asia, Africa to Central and South America, constituting the largest
cultivar group among AAB bananas.
The center of origin of plantain is presumed to be Southern India. The
presumption is based on the fact that the area is the only zone in Asia where a great
diversity of AAB bananas is observed (although the extent of diversity is very muchsmaller than that in Africa) 30). In Kerala State in southern India, a French plantaincultivar called Nendraka is the most important one and used for preparation of avariety of dishes (the classification of plantain bananas shall be described later) 13).
The indicator characteristics that distinguish the plantain group from other AAB
bananas are the conditions that the color of compound tepal, a part of male flower
ranges from yellow to orange, the male axis is absent, or if present, it is covered withbracts or flowers (or their vestiges), fingers are slender and angulated, and that thefruit flesh, even when it is ripe, is starchy and inedible without cooking30) . However,since these criteria are not absolute ones and there are cases of exception, they may
have to be considered only as general characteristics. For example, there are certain
cultivars in which the color of male bud disappears when they are grown at a highelevation, or those having fingers without slender appearance24). Nonetheless the
majority of plantains has common characteristics in the elements constituting thecluster (male axis, flower, bract, finger, etc) and can be recognized at a glance.
Plantain group has a diversity of characteristics in the cluster structure and themorphology and size of fingers, and hence comprises a multitude of cultivars.
Consequently, it is classified into a number of groups. The classification
conventionally used and practiced still widely at the present time is that based on theextent of development (or degeneration) of male axis, flower and male bud. These
parts may be the most impressive elements when one looks at plantains.
Simmonds in the beginning classified plantains largely into two groups20). They
were French plantain and Horn plantain. The male axis in French plantain does not
fall and is normally covered with the vestiges of male flowers and bracts.
Meanwhile, Horn plantain lacks male axis at maturity or loses it at an early stage(naturally no male bud present either). Subsequently, it became known that thosewhich had been assumed to belong to Horn type plantain group included different
types, and the group of cultivars retaining only neutral flowers became to be called
False Horn plantain. Later on, researchers have recognized a plantain group fallingin an intermediate place between False Horn type and French Horn type, andnowadays it is classified as French Horn type 5). These four groups currently
constitute the general classification of bananas of plantain group. The differences ofthe four groups are summarized as follows16) 24).
ձ French typeAt maturity, an inflorescence becomes complete. Compared with plants of otherplantain groups, fingers are smaller and their number is larger. The inflorescencebears a multitude of neutral flowers and has a large and persistent male bud(consisting of male flowers and bracts).
ղ French Horn type
 This type is characterized by the growth development in which the male bud dies
off before maturity, and the entire inflorescence becomes incomplete. It bears fingers
resembling those of French type but they are a bit less numerous and larger in size.
Besides, it bears less numerous neutral flowers than French type.
ճ False Horn type
Like French Horn type, a part of male axis and male buds die off before maturity,
the entire florescence becomes incomplete, but the number of fingers are smaller
and their size is larger than in French Horn, and neutral flowers are less numerous
than in French Horn..
մ Horn typeAt maturity, male axes, male buds, neutral flowers disappear completely.
Moreover, compared with other types of plantains, the plants bear less numerous
but larger fingers.
To summarize succinctly, the inflorescence varies from complete one toincomplete one (reduction of male axes and flowers), and from one with numerous
small fingers to one with few large fingers, in the order of types from French, FrenchHorn, False Horn, to Horn. One is able to make with a certainty the differentiation
between French type plantains having the complete inflorescence and Horn type
plantains thoroughly lacking in male axes and flowers at maturity. But as for French
Horn type plantains and False Horn type plantains, the trait of incomplete
inflorescence is the matter of degrees and hence continuous. Fig. I-4 is adiagrammatical representation of these characteristics.
 The author would like to show pictures of some of actual bananas (Photo I -3).
These are: Mzuzu, French Plantain type cultivar in Zanzibar, Tanzania; Bai, False
Horn type cultivar of East Region in Cameroon; Mkono wa tembo, a Horn typecultivar in Zanzibar.

Upper left: French, Upper right: French Horn,
Lower left: False Horn, Lower right: Horn
Fig. I-4 Fruit clusters for different types of plantain bananas
Source: Tezenas du Montcel 1987



Mzuzu (French type, Zanzibar) 

Bai (False Horn type, East Region,
Cameroon)

Mkono wa tembo (Horn type, Zanzibar)
Photo I-3 Clusters of different types of plantain
Credit: K. KitanishiIn the classification of plantains, the plant size is also an important criterion. Plant
sizes are classifier into three groups, large, medium and small. However, it is difficult
to apply this classification to actual field work conducted in rural areas, since thesame cultivar expresses different sizes depending on the differences in growing
environment. For example, Langhe et al., 2005, classify the height of pseudostem atflowering into three ranges: shorter than 320 cm; 320 cm to 370 cm; and taller than
370 cm. 16) On the other hand, De Langhe, 1964, adopted the ranges around 225 cm,
275, and 350 cm 14), and Tezenas du Motcel, 1979, used those, shorter than 400 cm,
400 cm to 500 cm (around 450 cm), and taller than 500 cm. 31) Although theclassification based on actual height of pseudostem may be possible when different
cultivars are planted on the experimental plot with identical conditions (this applies
to the above-mentioned studies), it is difficult to apply the same criteria to studies
conducted for actual fields with variable conditions in diverse geographical areas.
A practicable criterion likely to be applied to field work is the number of leaves
developed by the stage of flowering which shows a high correlation with the plantheight in experimental plots16). Moreover, the number of developed leaves is a trait
relatively stable under variable environmental conditions 24). While the criteria
based on the size, i. e., large-medium-small, differ delicately depending on papers,
they approximately correspond to those of the number of leaves as follows: morethan 40 (or 42) ; 38 (or 40) to 32; and less than 30.
It is known that, for each of the above-described 4 types of fruit clusters, plantainsof 3 different classes of plant size exist 16). Other traits used for classification
include the pseudostem colors, the shapes of finger apex, and the cluster orientation,etc.
(2) Molecular biological studies and classification
In recent years, studies on DNA of bananas have been started. It has been provedthat the plantain bananas can be clearly distinguished from other groups of bananasby means of RAPD technique.8) On the other hand, the above-describedclassification systems based on morphological characteristics (inflorescence andplant size) seemingly do not agree unequivocally with the classification based on
genetical differences. The studies by Crouch et al have shown only very little
correlation between the differences by cultivars of plantain and the morphologicalclassification of them, suggesting the existence of great diversity in the domains ofgenes that affect scarcely the cluster type and the plant size.3) Furthermore, thestudies by Ude et al. has shown that the AFLP technique is more efficient than the
RAPD as a method for identifying differences between plantain cultivars, and thatthe types of fruit clusters correlate slightly with the differences identified by the
AFLP technique.37) It is anticipated that the research in this area shall develop
rapidly in the future.
(3) Hypotheses on the evolution of plantains
There is a commonly accepted theory concerning the evolution of plantains thathave such a morphological diversity. According to the theory, it is believed that theoriginal French type had undergone the changes in which the inflorescenceprogressively evolved by somaclonal mutation to become incomplete one togenerate the types of French Horn, False Horn and Horn in that sequence. This iscalled inflorescence degeneration. The evolution processes postulated by De Langheand Rossel can be summarized as follows:
It is assumed that the ancestors of plantains in Africa had been those which weresimilar to the existing French type having perfect inflorescences and that they
undergo the process of evolution in which the inflorescences degenerate
progressively, to French Horn, False Horn and Horn type. In ensuing phases,
secondary changes take place (pseudostem colors, finger apex shapes, dwarfed
finger apex, finger colors, etc.) 14) 24). As a matter of fact, certain types of plantains
in which the morphology of cluster is unstable are known. Although the case is very
rare, a plantain plant may change from Horn type to False Horn, then to French type,and occasionally we find more than two types of cluster in a single plantain stock(Ngego of Nyakyusa to be described later) 24). Hence it is believed that the domainof genes determining the morphology of cluster is such one as is very liable to causevariations 39).
The study of Crouch et al. on DNA by using RAPD technique shows thefollowing three points. First, the genetical within the plantain subgroup is quite low.
Second, the genetical variation within a group becomes larger in the ascending orderfrom French, French Horn, False Horn to Horn type. From this we can guess that
French type has passed a longer period of evolution since its origin than Horn type,in agreement with the hypothesis of degeneration of inflorescence. Third, theclassification into three groups by plant sizes of plantains does not seem to be able tosuggest the path of evolution, since the extent of variation within each group does
not differ from one group to another.3) From these three points, it is suggested that
although the appearance of plantain subgroup plants, especially cluster structure
seems to be various, they are comparatively uniform in genes except the domain ofgenes determining the morphology of cluster, that the present plantains are derived
from a small number of clones through the process of the inflorescence degeneration,and that the groups of different size are likely to be diversified separately.
2) Distribution and diversity
Plantains are distributed widely in Africa from East Africa, Central Africa to West
Africa, but the types and the number of their cultivars differ from one area to another.
To describe briefly, the contrast between Central Africa characterized as the zone
with multitudes of types each of which comprises numerous cultivars and East
Africa with a limited number of types each of which comprises only a few cultivars.
West Africa could be considered as a zone with a situation similar to that of Central
Africa, but since documents with quantitative data were not available, the author
does not speculate on it here.
(1) East Africa
In East Africa, except for a limited number of areas, no agriculture is practiced
based on plantains as the main crop. Since the diversity of plantains is due tosomatic mutations, the variations are likely to occur more frequently where bananas
are grown abundantly, and the relative scarcity of cultivars in East Africa may be
attributed to this fact. In East Africa the plantain of cluster type of French, medium
type in size, and the pseudostem color in green is found most abundantly over theentire region and contains the largest number of cultivars, followed by the plantainwith the type of Horn, medium and green. The type of False Horn is distributed only
to a limited extent, and French Horn type is not found24) 9.
Rossel has divided East Africa into three zones depending on the diversity ofplantains. The zone ձ includes coastal areas of Kenya, Tanzania (excluding
Zanzibar and Pemba) and Somalia where only two plantain groups,
French-medium-green type and Horn-medium-green type, are found. The
northeastern Kenya and Somalia are generally arid and hence not suited for growing
banana, but it is reportedly cultivated by exploiting riverside forests24).
Although Zanibar is included geographically in the zone ձ, it is a peculiar area
where False Horn type is found. Maruo and Kitanish have conducted a field survey
there13). The island belongs to the Indian Ocean complex zone according to theclassification of De Langeh et al. 17) where diverse genome types are distributed, andresembles Asia. In particular, several kinds of banana of genome types of AAB
other than plantains are found. Bananas are grown in home gardens and permanent
arable lands in mixture with other crops. However, the level of importance of banana
is lower than rice and cassava. Among different types of bananas, plantains, inparticular a cultivar of French type called Muzuzu (Photo I – 3), are cultivated fairly
widely, but in spite of it, they do not necessarily exceed other genome types ofbananas in importance.
Seven cultivars are found, comprising 3 of French type, 2 of False Horn type, and 2of Horn type. Zanzibar has been since early the center of international
communication and as a result of exchanges with people from various origins, False
Horn Plantain bananas could have been imported. During our survey, we㻌㻌㻌㻌㻌㻌㻌㻌㻌㻌㻌㻌㻌㻌㻌㻌㻌㻌㻌㻌㻌㻌㻌㻌㻌㻌㻌㻌㻌㻌㻌㻌㻌㻌㻌㻌㻌㻌㻌㻌㻌㻌㻌㻌㻌㻌
9Rossel 1998, adopting the three traits, i. e., cluster structure, plant size, and pseudostem color
as the principal criteria together with other subsidiary traits, classified plantains and analyzed
their distribution and the numbers of cultivars.
happened to meet a person who had imported a new banana cultivar from Rwanda.
Rossel has pointed out the historical fact that Britain had made banana collection in
Zanzibar in the 1880s, and in Entebbe, capital of Uganda, in 1902, and thepossibility of the introduction of False Horn type to Zanzibar as a consequence of
the British activities of banana collection24).
The zone 䐠 extends from the center to the west of Tanzania and to Malawi. Here,in addition to French type and Horn type, the unstable Horn type (it sometimes
mutates to False Horn type) is found24).
The people of Nyakyusa in southwestern Tanzania practice the agriculture based
principally on plantain bananas that is an exceptional case in this zone. According toMaruo who conducted a study on banana cultivation of Nyakyusa, banana iscultivated in mixture with other tree crops for earning cash income such as coffee inthe permanent home gardens where a total of 28 banana cultivars including 12
plantain cultivars were observed. A French Plantain cultivar called Ittoki sege, is theone that was cultivated most frequently13). As far as the observation ofphotographs of fruit clusters taken by Maruo is concerned, eleven cultivars out of
twelve are of French plantain type bananas, and one is of Horn plantain type
(cultivar name is Ngego). However this Horn plantain type banana seems to include
also unstable lines, since the photographs of fruit clusters show under an identicalcultivar name the plantains of different types ranging from those of typical Horntype to those of False Horn or French type. Rossel also describes Ngego of
Nyakyusa as a cultivar of unstable Horn type24). There plantains are consumed forcooking in general but used also for brewing. Bananas mainly of plantain cultivars
are shipped out in large quantity to the regional capital of Mbeya13).
The zone 䐡 covers Uganda and the northwest of Tanzania where plantains ofFalse Horn type as well as those of French and Horn types are found, and is also thearea with the largest number of cultivars in East Africa. Among sub-zones, thewestern part of Uganda has the greatest diversity, and the cultivars found there show
similarities to those in Central Africa, and hence the region can be considered as apart of Central Africa in terms of culture and ecology. The linkage with CentralAfrica may be a factor to explain such diversity. On the other hand, in the southernpart of Uganda, very few plantains are cultivated and the number of cultivars issmall, although three types (French, False Horn and Horn) are found there24). As
described in the preceding section, East African Highland bananas, AAA-EA, aregrown abundantly in many parts of Uganda.
In the northwestern part of Tanzania also, East African Highland bananas aremainly grown, but plantains are also grown, although the cases of cultivation of thelatter are less frequent compared with the former. According to the study conductedby Maruo on the cultivation of bananas by Haya people, although the number ismuch smaller than 61 in the case of cultivars of East African Highland bananas, they
still cultivate 10 cultivars of plantain. The 6 cultivars that can be observed inphotographs comprise 2 cultivars of French type, 1 of False Horn type, and 3 ofHorn type. Plantains are used for light meals13).
Thus, in the eastern part of East Africa plantains are not cultivated so much andtheir diversity is not great (except Zanzibar). In further west the diversity of plantains
increases and reaches the highest degree in Uganda (particularly in the western
Uganda neighboring on the Democratic Republic of the Congo). However, thepeople of Nyakyusa in the west of Tanzania grow plantains abundantly and there are
numerous cultivars.
(2) Central Africa
Central Africa could be the zone where there are the most diverse plantains in theworld. Besides, there are many areas where people take plantains as the staple food.
Rossel has studied the number of plantain cultivars in each country of Central Africa(data on Democratic Republic of the Congo, Republic of the Congo, Gabon,
Cameroon and Nigeria of West Africa, Table I-4). His work concerns theclassification of plantain cultivars by morphological characteristics, which is basedon his own observation and the reports on plantains preserved in research institutions
in Nigeria and Cameroon and those described in a certain number of publishedpapers24).
Figures in Table I-4 indicate that there are a considerably larger number ofplantain cultivars than in East Africa. The table gives an impression that the diversity
in Cameroon is the highest and that in Nigeria is low, but the adequate evaluation of
the difference is difficult. Rossel himself notes that the table gives only a roughcomparison of diversity for different countries. It is likely that the data varydepending on the extent of investigation and on the criteria used by an individual fordifferentiation of morphological types. In general, the diversity of bananas vary
little between these 5 countries and the order of importance for different types is
uniformly the same to all the countries, namely, French type represents the mostnumerous cultivars, followed by False Horn, Horn, and French Horn.
From his own field survey in Cameroon, Rossel has concluded that the diversity
is great in East Region of Cameroon. In East Region of Cameroon, however, themain cultivars differ between different areas, and for example, while the prevailing
cultivars in Mbang are of green Horn type, in Abong Mbang those of medium-sizedand green French type with rounded finger apexes are grown more frequently.
Moreover, Rossel states that the greatest diversity is observed in Moloundou
Sub-division (the south of Boumba-Ngoko Division of the East Region of
Cameroon) 24), the area where Komatsu and Kitanish have conducted a study on theculture of banana cultivation 13).
Table I -4 Number of plantain cultivars in different countries
F
Fr H
Fa H
Democratic
29
1
12
Republic of. Congo
Repub. Congo
21
1
16
Gabon
27
3
16
Cameroon35
2
11
Nigeria15
413
F＝Frenc, Fr H＝French Horn, Fa H＝False Horn, H＝Horn

H
8

Total
50

5
3
3
4

43
49
51
36

Source: Rossel 1998

Komatsu conducted a study about the people of Bangandou in the MbatekaVillage of Moloundou Sub-division. People there practice a type of shifting
cultivation system growing plantain as the principal crop (refer to Chapter 2 fordetails of the shifting cultivation in this region). Among the 22 banana cultivars
grown in this region, 18 are plantains13). The cultivar that is most abundantly grownin this village is one of Horn type called Boi that matures early and develops
numerous suckers 27). Incidentally, Shikata has conducted a detailed study onplantain cultivation in Bangandou.
Kitanishi conducted a study on an ethnic group of hunter-gatherers (so-called
Pygmies) in Ndongo Village in the same Moloundou Sub-division. They used tolive originally mainly by hunting and gathering, but since around 1950s, theirlivelihood changed progressively to agriculture-based and sedentary life, andcurrently they lead life passing more than half of their yearly time in settlement
villages, albeit temporarily leading life of hunting and gathering in the forest, andconsume plantains as the staple food just like agricultural people around them 12).
They also practice shifting cultivation like the villagers in Bangadou and growplantains as the main crop.
The number of confirmed cultivars is 20 for all kinds of bananas out of which 15
are plantains. Numbers of cultivars for different types are: 6 for French; 1 for French
Horn (also possibility to be False Horn); 5 for False Horn; 1 for Horn; and 2 forunknown types. The most frequently cultivated cultivar is Tetendo of French
plantain type (medium in size), accounting for 60 % of harvested plantains. The
strait distance between Mbateca Village and Ndongo Village is about 40 km. The
observed difference between them may be due to the difference in ethnic group, but
the difference in the composition of principal cultivars between two locations withsuch a short intervening distance is very interesting.
We present some of characteristic plantains observed in Ndongo Village (forclusters and vegetative parts, refer to Photos I -4). Libele is a cultivar having a small
plant body and less numerous fruits, but bearing harvestable fruits earlier than otherplantains (about a year, compared to one and a half year for others). This cultivar iscultivated extensively in Cameroon, Congo and Gabon, and called by similarcultivar names 24). The general preference for it may be due to its early maturity.
Mboko is a plantain cultivar of French type characterized by arched fingers. Mboko
signifies a buffalo in the local language, and the cultivar is thus named because thearched shape of fingers resembles that of a horn of buffalo.

Libele

Mboko

Ndumu

Medo
MobiliPhoto I – 4 Plantains in Ndongo Village in the southeastern Cameroon
Credit: K. KitanishiNdumu is a plantain cultivar of Horn type characterized by slender fingers curved
in a long arch. While the cluster shown in the picture consists of three hands, there
is a certain type that has only one hand with less numerous but thicker fingers. Medois characterized by a red pseudostem. Since in general the pseudostems of plantains
are green with black speckles, this is very noticeable. On the other hand, thepseudostem of Moboli is almost entirely green and moreover glossy. As thesedescriptions show, people in this region cultivate a multitude of cultivars of plantains
that have diverse characteristics in respect to not only cluster’s shape and size but
also pseudostem.
Ankei conducted a study on the agricultural activities of Songola people
inhabiting the area around Kindu of Kivu Province in the eastern part of the
Democratic Republic of the Congo 1). People there practice shifting cultivation inwhich the principal crops are cassava and plantain. Ankei cites 29 plantain cultivars
in Songola as a whole. However, the number of cultivars for each subgroup ranges
from 12 to 18 and is more or less similar to the number identified in the study
conducted for each village in the East Region of Cameroon, suggesting the presenceof the same level of diversity.
(3) Is it “From East to West” or “From West to East”?
Hereupon let’s contemplate the manner of propagation of plantains in referring to
the studies of Rossel 20). As described in the preceding sections, the numbers ofplantain cultivars are larger in Central Africa (and West Africa) than East Africa. The
number of cultivars is related to the incidence of somatic mutations. If the latter iscorrelated to the length of period of cultivation in a particular region, the statistics on
cultivars’ population signify that Central Africa has a longer history of plantaincultivation and that plantains have secondarily spread to East Africa from the region.
However, considering the fact that bananas have spread from Asia, such a scenario isquite unlikely. Moreover, if plantains have spread by chance from Central Africa to
East Africa, those of False Horn type commonly found in the former should havespread equally to East Africa, but they are found only in very limited places there.
This situation is quite contrasting to that in West Africa or in Americas. Rossel has
reviewed the reports on the plantains in Ghana and concluded that there are fivecultivars of French type plantain, one of French Horn type, three of False Horn, andone cultivar of Horn type plantain in Ghana. Moreover, in Venezuela in SouthAmerica five cultivars of French type plantain and four cultivars of False Horn typeare found. In Columbia cultivars of types of French, French Horn, False Horn, andHorn have been confirmed. In other words, the plantains in West Africa andAmerican Continents are considered to have originated in Central Africa. However,
it is also likely that the plantains in Americas have arrived there via West Africa 24).
In short, it is difficult to assume that plantains have migrated from West Africa to
East Africa, since in East Africa the cultivars found in Central Africa do not exist,
while in West Africa and in Americas they are found at random. Those plantains that
had arrived in Central Africa via East Africa were cultivated abundantly over an
extensive area, and have undergone frequent somatic mutations out of which people
in Central Africa have selected desirable lines and developed the existing diversity ofplantains found there.
In East Africa, people continued to grow the plantains that had arrived there from
Asia, but since the number of plants cultivated was small, the frequency ofoccurrences of mutation might have been lower than in Central Africa (or it might
have been due to the matter of selection by people). Besides, the diverse plantains
developed in Central Africa have not come across with so many opportunities to be
introduced to East Africa. The existence of the East African Highland bananas might
be postulated as a factor.
Literature cited in Chapter I
1) Ankei, Y. 1981, Agriculture and economic activities of Songola people– Shifting
cultivation in rainforest of Central Africa, Quarterly Journal of Anthropology,
12(1): 96-178. (in Japanese)2) Bioversity International 2007, Probing the identity of East African bananas,
Bioversity International Home Page, News, 19 March, 2007.
http://www.bioversityinternational.org/news_and_events/news/news/article/
probing-the-identity-of-east-african-bananas.html(accessed February 8, 2010)
3) Crouch H. K., J. H. Crouch, S. Madsen, D. R. Vuylsteke and R. Ortiz 2000,
Comparative analysis of phenotypic and genotypic diversity among plantainlandraces (Musa spp., AAB group), Theoretical and Applied Genetics, 101:
1056-1065.
4) Daito, H. 2001, Bananas, a monograph, Japan Association for International
Collaboration of Agriculture and Forestry, 165 pp. (in Japanese)5) Edmeades, S. and D. A. Karamura 2007, Banana taxonomy for Tanzania, in
Smale, M. and W. K. Tushemereirwe (eds.), An economic assessment of banana
genetic improvement and innovation in the Lake Victoria Region of Uganda andTanzania, IFPRI Research Report 155, International Food Policy ResearchInstitute, Washington, D.C., 170-174.
6) Edmeades, S. and D. A. Karamura 2007, Banana taxonomy for Uganda, ibid,
164-169.
7) Hotta, M., K. Ogata, A. Nitta, K. Hoshikawa, M. Yanagi, K. Yamazaki 1989,
World Encyclopedia of Useful Plants, Heibonsha, Ltd., 1499 pp. (in Japanese)
8) Howell, E. C., H. J. Newbury, R. L. Swennen, R. L. Withers and B. V.
Ford-Lloyd 1994, The use of RAPD for identifying and classifying Musa
germplasm, Genome, 37: 328-332.
9) IPGRI, INIBAP, CIRAD 1996, Descriptors for banana (Musa spp.), 55pp.
10) Karamura D. A. 1999, Numerical taxonomic studies of the East African
Highland Bananas (Musa AAA-East Africa) in Uganda. Ph.D.thesis, The
University of Reading, IPGRI, 192pp.
11) Karamura, E., E. Frison, D. A. Karamura and S. Sharrock 1998, Banana
production systems in Eastern and Southern Africa, in Picq C., E. Foure and E.A.
Frison (eds.), Bananas and Food Security, INIBAP, Motpellier, 401-412.
12) Kitanishi, K. 2002, The Acceptance of Banana Cultivation among the Baka
Hunter-gatherers in Tropical Rainforest of Central Africa, Bulletin of the Facultyof Education, Yamaguchi University, 52(1):51-68 . (in Japanese)13) Komatsu, K., K. Kitanishi, S. Maruo, R. Hanawa 2006, Comparative Study ofBanana-Farming Cultures in Asia and Africa: With Special Reference to theDiversity of Local Cultivars, Asian and African area studies, 6(1): 77-119. (inJapanese)
14) De Langhe, E. 1964, The origin of variation in the plantains and bananas,
Mededelingen van de Landbouwhogeschool en de Opzoekingsstations van deStaat te Gent, 29: 45-80.
15) De Langhe, E. and P. De Maret 1999, Tracking the banana: its significance inearly agriculture, in Gosden, C. C. and J. Hather (eds.), The Prehistory of Food:
Appetites for change, Routledge, London, 377-396.
16) De Langhe, E., M. Pillay, A. Tenkouano and R. Swennen 2005, Integrating
morphologocal and molecular taxonomy in Musa: The African plantains (Musaspp. AAB group), Plant Systematics and Evolution, 255: 225-236.
17) De Langhe, E., R. Swennen and D. Vuylsteke 1994, Plantain in the early Bantu
world, Azania, 29-30: 147-160.
18) INIBAP Information/Documentation Service 1990, A compared study ofexisting classifications for the microthesaurus of cultivars names.
19) Lejju, B. J., P. Robertshaw and D. Taylor 2006, Africa's earliest bananas?,
Journal of Archaeological Science 33:102-113.
20) Maruo, S. 2002, Banana agriculture and its intensity in Great Lakes Region of
Africa, Agricultural technology and culture, 25: 108-134. (in Japanese)21) Nakamura, T. 1991, Introduction to Banana Science, Maruzen, 148 pp. (inJapanese)22) Nsabimana, A., S. V. Gaidashova, G. Nantale, D. Karamura and J. Van Staden
2008, Banana cultivar distribution in Rwanda, African Crop Science Journal,
16(1): 1-8.
23) Pillay M., R. Ogundiwin, D. C. Wakanma, G. Ude and A. Tenkouano 2001,
Analysis of genetic diversity and relationships in East African banana germplasm,
Theoretical and Applied Genetics, 102: 965-970.
24) Rossel, G. 1998, Taxonomic-linguistic study of plantain in Africa, CNWS


Publications, Leiden, 277pp.
25) Schoenbrun, D. L. 1998, A green place, a good place: Agrarian change, gender,and social identity in the Great Lakes Region to the 15th century, James Currey,
Oxford, 301pp.
26) Shepherd, K. 1957, Banana cultivars in East Africa, Tropical Agriculture,
Trinidad, 34(4): 277-286.
27) Shikata, K., 2004, Sustainable Plantain Production in Secondary Forest: A
Shifting Cultivation System in the Tropical Rain Forest of Southeastern
Cameroon, Asian and African area studies, 4(1):4-35. (in Japanese)
28) Simmonds, N. W. 1959, Bananas, 1st ed., Longman, Essex, 466pp.
29) Simmonds, N. W. and K. Shepherd 1955, The taxonomy and origins of thecultivated bananas, The Journal of the Linnean Society of London, LV(359):
302-312.
30) Stover , R. H. and N. W. Simmonds 1987, Bananas, 3rd ed., Longman, Essex,
468pp.
31) Tezenas du Motcel 1979, Les plantains du Cameroun, Propositions pour leurclassification et dénominations vernaculaires, Fruits, 34, 83-96.
32) Tezenas du Montcel, H. 1987, Plantain bananas, Macmillan Education, London,
112pp.
33) Edition of Tokyo University of Agriculture Editorial Board for 100 Natural
Faces of Papua New Guinea 2001, “Treasure House of Traditional Agriculture
and Plant Resources” - 100 Natural Faces of Papua New Guinea – Another
Guidebook, Tokyo University of Agriculture Press, 135 pp. (in Japanese)34) Tugume, A. K., G.W. Lubega and P. R. Rubaihayo 2002, Genetic diversity of
East African Highland Bananas using AFLP, INFOMUSA 11(2), 28-32.
35) Tushemereirwe, W. K., D. Karamura, H. Ssali, ,D. Bwamiki, I. Kashaija, C.
Nankinga, F. Bagamba, A. Kangire and R. Ssebuliba 2001, Bananas (Musa spp),
in Mukiibi, J. K. (ed.), Agriculture in Uganda volume II Crops, Fountain
Publishers, Kampala, 281-321.
36) Tushemereirwe, W. K., I. N. Kashaija, W. Tinzaara, C. Nankinga and S. New(eds.), 2003, Banana production manual, National Agricultural Research
Organization, Uganda, Kampala, 88pp.
37) Ude G., M. Pillay, E. Ogundiwin and A. Tenkouano 2003, Genetic diversity in
an African plantain core collection using AFLP and RAPD markers, Theoreticaland Applied Genetics, 107: 248-255.
38) Valmayor, R. V., S. H. Jamaluddin, B. Silayoi, S. Kusumo, L. D. Danh, O. C.
Pascua and R. R. C. Espino 2000, Banana cultivar names and synonyms inSoutheast Asia, International Plant Genetic Resources Institute, Rome, 24pp.
39) Vuylsteke D., R. Swennen and E. De Langhe 1991, Somaclonal variation inplantains (Musa spp. AAB group) derived from shoot-tip culture, Fruits, 46:429-239.
40) Vuysteke, D., D. Karamura, R. N. Ssebuliba and D. Makumbi 1996, Seed andpollen fertility in the East African Highland bananas, MusAfirca, 10: 13.

Chapter II. Cultivation and utilization of cooking bananas inAfrica
1. General situation
1) Systems of cropping and utilization
The production of cooking banana in Africa is essentially practiced by small
farmers on a small scale. It is grown in either home gardens or agricultural lands
away from residential quarters. In the case of cultivation in home gardens, it isgrown in mixture with other tree crops and/or herbaceous crops and managed moreelaborately than in remote agricultural lands. Because farmers apply wastes fromliving as nutrients or sometimes fertilizers there, it is possible to grow continuously
the crops for dozens of years in the same plots. In the Great Lakes Region like
Uganda, people carry out an intensive form of cultivation by such a system to feed adense population. On the other hand, the remote agricultural lands are essentially
utilized by shifting cultivation by slash-and-burn systems, but as a consequence ofrecent population growth and the demographic migration to urban and suburban
areas, in certain localities the necessary fallow period in the shifting cycle cannot be
secured and lands are being put to continuous cultivation. Mixed cropping is thegeneral mode of farming and the cropping system incorporating tree crops such ascacao and coffee and other crops for the staple food, legumes and vegetables isobserved throughout all the regions in Africa. In particular in those areas where
cacao is grown, banana plays the roles of cover plant to shade seedlings of cacao andfor the production of the staple food and the income source until cacao reaches thestage for harvesting. In small scale production, essentially chemical fertilizers are notused. It is because chemical fertilizers are relatively expensive in comparison withthe selling prices of products. Organic fertilizers are provided by wastes of living in
the case of home gardens and by the vegetation at the end of fallow period in thecase of shifting cultivation. Lately in certain parts in suburban areas of cities inWest Africa, agricultural lands under continuous cropping sustained by theapplication of chemical fertilizers are observed.
 The variations of current banana growing culture in Africa can roughly beclassified into three regional types depending on the historical processes throughwhich banana cultivation as well as cultivar groups have been accepted. In theeastern coastal zone, there is an area where every type of banana of various genome
types is cultivated evenly in a small scale, which De Langhe called “Indian Ocean
complex” 5). In the area genome types are diverse similarly as in Asia, and in
dietary culture banana plays only a secondary role supplementing rice or cassava.
Another area is located around the Great Lakes Region that is characterized by theabundant presence of cultivars of one particular type of AAA banana called “East
African Highland Banana”, a type of banana for cooking and brewing that is notfound in Asia (refer to Chapter I and Chapter III). People in this area depend heavily
on banana for the staple food. Uganda which shall be described in detail from thenext chapter is included in this area. Finally, there is an area stretching from Central
Africa to West Africa where plantain subgroup (=a subgroup of ABB genome typein this chapter) is highly developed. In this area the majority of banana cultivars
are plantains for cooking, and play an important role as the staple food. In theensuing sections, the characteristics of cultivation and utilization are described foreach zone from East Africa, except the zone of East African Highland AAA, toCentral Africa and then to West Africa (Fig II-1 shows the zones described in thepresent chapter).
2) Production and yield by zone
Among the African countries the one which produces the largest quantity of
cooking banana is Uganda. Even in comparison with the second largest country,
Tanzania, Uganda’s production is more than twice as large as that of it (Table II -1).
The Great Lakes Region which includes Uganda has a very particular
agricultural culture even from a global perspective. The people living there
maintain a high population density based on the intensive cultivation of banana as
their staple food that they grow on home gardens under a long term regime ofcontinuous cropping. Further details about this region shall be given in the nextchapter.

GHANA
IVORY
COAST

CAMEROON
Likouala
East ‫ە ە‬‫ ەە‬UGANDA‫ ە‬Kivu
Equator ‫ە‬CONGOTANZANIADR CONGO‫ە ە‬Zanzibar ‫ ە‬Morogoro

Mbeya

Fig. II-1 Areas of banana cultivation described in Chapter II
Source: created by K. Komatsu Additionally in East Africa, in other parts of Tanzania, Kenya and Malawi
outside the Great Lakes Region, a large volume of banana production is observed.
 Bananas of plantain subgroup are grown in Central Africa, i.e., Democratic
Republic of the Congo (hereafter referred to as DR Congo), Republic of the Congo(hereafter simply as Congo), Gabon, Equatorial Guinea, and in West Africa, in thehumid areas of Nigeria, Ivory Coast, and Guinea. They are grown less intensivelythan in East Africa, mainly on agriculturallands under shifting cultivation regime,
providing either the main staple food or a
supplementary staple food.
Bananas are grown in almost all parts ofhumid areas, and the areas with statistics oflarge production include the southern part of
Nigeria, Ghana, Ivory Coast, the southernpart of Cameroon, and the northern part of
DR Congo. In the areas as a whole wherebananas are cultivated, the most importantcrop is cassava and it is cultivated in almost
all areas except highlands.

Table II-1 Ten leading countriesof banana production in Africa in
2008

Country
Production (1000 ton)
Uganda9846
Tanzania
4100
Nigeria
2991
Ghana
2988
Rwanda2600
Cameroon
2260
Ivory Coast
1870
Kenya
1791
Burundi1600
DR Congo
1519
Source: FAOSTAT
Note: Since the definition of banana
and plantain differs depending on
2. East Africa – Indian Ocean
countries, cited statistics represent the
total of both categories of bananas.
ComplexExcepting figures for Ivory Coast andIn East Africa, the areas where bananas are DR Congo, values are from thecultivated are roughly divided into two zones. estimation by FAO.

The first zone comprises the areas where thecultivars of “East African Highland” bananas are cultivated, covering Uganda,
Rwanda, Burundi and the western Tanzania. This zone shall be described in detail in
the next chapter and those following it. The second zone comprises the areas, where
people cultivate the group of cultivars of Indian Ocean Complex resembling those in
Asia, covering the coastal areas of Tanzania and the coastal areas in the north ofMadagascar, and those islands lying between the two areas including Zanzibar.
Moreover, between “East African Highland” and “Indian Ocean Complex” diverse
areas, each with a specific banana culture, are scattered about.
In colonial periods, bananas were produced as a commodity for self-sufficiency in
Uganda, for export in Kenya, and for both export and self-sufficiency in Tanzania. In
the 1940s, the banana producing countries in East Africa were reportedly Kenya,Uganda, and Tanganyika (present day Tanzania).
The following descriptions on the methods for production and utilization of
cooking banana as the staple food in various parts in Tanzania are based on thereports of field surveys conducted by S. Maruo (the surveys in Zanzibar wereconducted in collaboration with K. Kitanishi).1
䐟㻌Zanzibar , Tanzania
 Zanzibar has been since ancient times the entrance of trade between Arab world
and Africa, where typical cultivars of “Indian Ocean Complex” are cultivated.
Bananas are cultivated in home gardens and permanent agricultural lands in mixture
with other crops. However, the importance of bananas in agricultural lands is lesser
compared with rice, cassava or other cash crops. 27 cultivars are observed and thebreakdown by genome types is as follows: AA (5), AAA (5), AAB (10), AB (1), andABB (6).
It is remarkable that we are able to find the high proportion of hybrid lines,
particularly of those bananas of AAB other than plantain subgroup that are rare in
Africa and ABB types. The representative cultivars that are found in actual
agricultural lands are Kijakazi (AAB), Mzuzu (AAB), Koroboi tungu (ABB), andBukoba (ABB). The list does not agree with that based on their frequencies
observed in the market of Stone Town, center of the island. Hybrid lines are often
used for cooking, but the characteristic fact is that many of acuminata lines (AA,AAA) are also used for cooking, and that there are three cultivars of AAB typewhich are not plantains and consumed mainly as dessert bananas. Thus, as a whole,bananas are mainly consumed for cooking purposes. More often than not, rice
constitutes the main ingredient of the staple food, but bananas are also consumed assuch like the case of serving the boiled banana or the banana cooked in coconut milk
for breakfast or light meals, or the case of preparation of a stew, one of much
1

For banana cultivation culture in Tanzania and Bangandou people, refer to Komatsu et al.
2006 and the website of “Banana Researchers Network of Japan”.
(http://www.geocities.jp/banana_rnj/)

preferred regular meal items, in which boiled banana is added to stews of coconut
milk, tomatoes and onions. Alcohol beverages are not brewed. Since coconut
serves as raw materials for fabrication of articles for daily living, the utilization of
banana leaves or pseudostems is not so frequent.
While some cultivars of dessert banana and the cultivars of cooking banana likeplantains are shipped out to supply
the Stone Town market, banana is
generally grown for self-sufficiency
purposes.
For planting banana, suckers ofapproximately 1 m in length are used.
Recently the use of organic fertilizers
such as fowl droppings has spread.
Certain farmers believe that the Photo II-1 Banana stew in coconut
milk, Ndizi na nazi, Zanzibar
fertilizer application can prevent
Credit: S. Maruo
diseases like Sigatoga and Panama.
䐠 Morogoro Region, Tanzania
 Morogoro Region is located in the East of Tanzania, and Morogoro, the regional
capital, lies about 200 km away to the west of Dar es Salaam, the national capital.
Most residents are Luguru people. This area grows many cultivars of “Indian
Ocean Complex” similarly as in Zanzibar. The bananas produced in this area areshipped out to supply the markets of Dar es Salaam, and hence farmers grow themmore often for selling purposes rather than for family consumption. Bananas aregrown in home gardens or on permanent agricultural lands either in mixed croppingwith coconut or yautia (Xanthosoma sagittifolium (L.)) or as a single crop on the plot,
and although the cases are infrequent, plots with a single cultivar only are sometimes
observed. Suckers are generally thinned out but those of cultivars of AAB type are
not thinned out. On sloped lands, one can observe plant populations which are notthinned out for the purpose of preventing soil erosion. Male inflorescences in mostcultivars are not removed because farmers believe that they supply the nutrients tofruits. When a banana stump emerges above ground, the stump is replaced. The
frequency of renovation is about once every three years in plantains, 10 to 20 years
in AAA, and in some of the AAB type reportedly once every 50 to 100 years.
While the incidence of Sigatoga disease and Panama disease is increasing, no
measure against pests and diseases has been taken.
19 cultivars have been observed and the breakdown by genome types is asfollows: AA (1), AAA (11), AAB (3), AB (1), and ABB (3). Among them, thosewhich have been established since early times are said to be 9 cultivars including theprincipal 6 cultivars of AAA genome type. The representative cultivars are
Mwanza (AAA), Mtwike (AAA), and Mzuzu, (AAB). Many of autotriploid lines ofacuminata are grown as cultivars of dual usage for cooking as well as for eating
fresh. The staple foods for the Luguru people are essentially rice and maize, andhence the position of banana as an item of the staple foodnot so important.
Nonetheless banana is consumed as a supplementary staple food and for light meals
in such dishes as fried banana or banana stew mingled with beef or beef entrails.
Alcoholic beverages are brewed from banana by the Chaga people, a minority
ethnic group in this region. As a luxury grocery item, there is an improved

Left: Stew of banana and beef, Ndizi na nyama 
Right: Banana bread, Mkate wa ndizi
Photo II-2 Banana dishes in Morogoro Region
Credit: S. Maruochewing tobacco prepared by mixing cooking liquid of dried fruit peels of Mzuzu, akind of plantain subgroup. The bananas produced in the studied area are purchased
through periodical markets and transported to the regional capital Morogoro and thenational capital Dar es Salaam. In the market, about 7 major cultivars are traded
and these are bought at preferential prices 10 times as high as those for other minor
cultivars.
䐡 Mbeya Region, Tanzania
 Mbeya Region is located in the south of Tanzania and to the north of Lake
Malawi, where the population density is very high. People of various ethnic
groups live there among which Nyakyusa people cultivate banana as the mostimportant crop for the staple food, only in the area at the elevation between 700 m
and 1000 m. The Nyakyusa grow banana cultivars of mainly plantain types, and it
is almost the only case in East Africa.
Banana is cultivated in home gardens in mixture with other tree crops for earning
cash income such as coffee. It is tended elaborately by various measures ofmanagement care including mulching and the application of ashes, the removal ofdried leaves and male inflorescences, etc.
 28 cultivars are observed and the breakdown by genome types is as follows: AA(1), AAA (8), AAB (12), AB (1), ABB (6). Among them, those of East African
Highland banana of AAA lines and plantain subgroup of AAB lines are said to havebeen in presence since early times. The banana with the overwhelmingly highest
frequency of observation is a plantain cultivar (AAB) called itooki sege followed bykambani (AB) and gulutu (ABB). With regard to the method of utilization, while
many of the plantain cultivars of AAB and ABB types are cooking varieties, manyof the cultivars of AAA type are for dual usage of cooking and dessert, and, ingeneral, the distinction of usage between cooking and dessert is not so clearly madeamong varieties. Until the 19th century, a main dish consisting of ball of sun-dried
banana flour was generally served. However, the custom of consuming ball of
banana flour is observed normally in West and Central Africa and very rarely in East

Africa. From the latter half of the 20th century, stews of plantain and commonbeans became the general custom. This manner of consumption represents thecooking technique in East Africa. In luncheonettes, fried plantain and deep-fried
pork without breading are standard items.
All the cultivars of AAB and AB genotypes are also used for brewing. The
utilization of banana in this locality is characterized by various kinds of floor matswoven by using fibers of petioles, for which the cultivars of ABB and AB types are
utilized. Moreover, in oral tradition, banana enters not only as an item of foodculture but also as the symbol of social prosperity. Large quantities of bananas
mainly composed of plantains produced in the studied village are shipped out to theregional capital city Mbeya.

3. Central and West Africa – Plantain
Common features in the banana cultivation culture in Central and West Africa are
as follows:
Cooking bananas are essentially those of plantain type;Land utilization system is essentially that of slash-and –burn shifting cultivation;
Crop management is less intensive than that in the Great Lakes Region;
Ball-shaped staple dish processed by various ways.
Agricultural culture in Central and West Africa has essentially inherited two typesof agricultural culture that had evolved uniquely in Africa, i.e., the Sudan agriculturecomplex of savanna type and the Guinea agriculture complex of tropical rainforest
type. Having started from the cultivation of crop plants indigenous to Africa such as
yams and miscellaneous minor cereals, the two types of agricultural culture later
received bananas, yams and taro originating from Southeast Asia around the
beginning of the Christian era, and cassava, yautea and maize from Central andSouth America after the 16th century to establish the existing crop complex. In
parts of humid areas in West Africa, a type of agricultural culture based on the rice
indigenous to Africa has developed, and also in the east of DR Congo the rice
cropping culture was introduced by Arab traders after the latter half of the 19thcentury, and hence in these parts of Central and West Africa, there are certain areas
where rice predominates in agriculture. Consequently, the current banana farming
culture exists in equilibrium with these crop species that differ from one area toanother.
 In these areas, we can recognize three patterns for banana cultivation. The mostimportant one is the mixed cropping system incorporating multitudes of crop species
on a small plot of less than one hectare under the slash-and-burn shifting cultivation.
In high population density zones including the coastal areas in West Africa, a part ofthe east of DR Congo and urban areas, field under shifting cultivation are being
turned to those under permanent cultivation. However, where there are abundant
land resources, the shifting cultivation with a fallow period of a few years to dozens
of years is practiced. In any of these areas, farmers believe that banana should begrown, in spite of the actual practice, in primary forest, or at least in old secondary
forest. People have cropped bananas intercropping with rice, cassava, coffee or
cacao in each area, but lately the mixture with other new crops like soybean andmelons with edible seeds is being promoted. The combination of mixed crops varies
depending on such factors as the necessity for cash income, the liability to theft of
products, and preferences. As to the burning of vegetation, there are two modes, i.e.,
one in which the cover is burnt before planting banana and the other in which it istreated after planting. Reports on the banana yield in different areas quote
following figures: 5 t/h and 6 t/ha in DR Congo; 10 t/ha in Ghana; 15 t/ha in Central
African Republic; 26 t/ha in volcanic ash soil at the foot of Mount Cameroon in theeastern part of Nigeria11).
 The second pattern concerns the cultivation on residential plots or in backyards ofurban houses. Residential plots in this part of Africa contain home gardens where thevegetation is composed of stratified populations of tree crops, plantain bananas, andlow-stature herbal crops, and the soil fertility is high thanks to application of wastes
of living, enabling the continuous cultivation of bananas for more than 20 years.
This type of agricultural land has the advantages of good access and low liability totheft. Urban homes keep backyard gardens where bananas including plantains arecultivated with the crop composition similar to that in rural home gardens but
excluding tree crops.
 The third pattern concerns the monoculture of bananas in the areas surrounding
cities and along the main routes. The monoculture of banana crops is practiced by
the class of people trained with advanced education, as side businesses of public
servants and entrepreneurs and as activities of unemployed highly-educated persons.
Chemical fertilizers and herbicides are applied and bananas are planted in strait rows.
Bananas are generally gown for selling in urban markets, but recently some of themare produced for exporting to international markets.
 In this zone, the commonest preparation methods for plantain banana are boilingor steaming and the further processing by pounding thus cooked banana intoball-shaped, which are accompanied with side dishes and consumed as the staple
food. The latter preparation is called fufu in West Africa. Bananas are either cooked
after peeling or cooked before peeling. Mainly in Nigeria, banana ball is sometimes
prepared from kneaded plantain flour. Sometimes stew is prepared by using palm oilthat is a particular condiment in this zone. The customary menus of light meals
consisting of charcoal-grilled plantain, deep-fried plantain, banana chips, etc. aresimilar to those encountered at many localities in other parts of Africa and in Asia.
 In the following sections, the information on cultivation and utilization ofplantains is described for each area going from the East to the West.
䐟 Democratic Republic of the Congo In Eastern part of Kivu Provinces and East Province of the eastern end of the DR
Congo, bananas had been cultivated as the principal crop since early times, to which
later cassava was added and in the late 19th century upland rice was added, and themixed cultivation of these three crops constitutes the agriculture.
The Songola people of Kivu Province living in tropical rainforest cultivate thesethree crops and maize, of which Y. Ankei has reported the existence of 29 cultivarsof cooking bananas. Different cultivars can be identified by the shape and size offingers. He reports even the existence of a cultivar in which the thickness of fingers
reaches the size of human ankle, which suggests that the cultivar may be a Horn type
plantain. The field is prepared by lightly burning vegetation residues while leaving
trees with hard wood standing. The banana sucker is prepared by cutting the top
portion of a sucker of about 60 cm in length to make it to 30 to 40 cm, and plantedwith the root covered with soil to a depth of about 10 cm. It was reported that in thelate 1970s young people would be no more attached to bananas so much as aged
persons. On average the planting density is 4.6 plants per 100 m2 (0.01 ha); a few
examples of yield per plant have quoted 10.6 kg, 13.2 kg, 22.6 kg, and 25 kg foreach of different cultivars; and Ankei estimates land productivity at 4.9 to 11.5 t/ha 2).
Kum people who lives to the east of the Songola also practices a type of
agriculture of mixed cultivation of cassava, rice, banana, and maize, which is similar
to the Songola agriculture. In the same province of Kivu, the people of Lega,living to the south of the Kum and to the southeast of the Songola, cultivate thelowland tropical forest to grow cassava, maize, and bananas with the importanceattached in that order. In addition to the plots where they grow banana in mixture
with cassava and maize, they maintain separate plots that are devoted exclusively to
growing bananas for eating fresh, cooking, and brewing. The Tembo people, livingon the western slope of the escarpment of the Great Rift Valley to the east ofresidential zone of the Lega, practice agriculture based mainly on cassava in thehighland at an elevation of 1380 m, and cultivate bananas planted in rows on thesouth side of fields for growing mainly cassava. In low-elevation villages farmers
grow upland rice as the principal crop in mixture with bananas, maize, and cassava.
Dishes prepared by stewing for many hours banana and common bean with palm oil
are preferred as the staple food. Bananas are also used for brewing alcoholic
beverages13).
 In the eastern parts of DR Congo farmers practice the banana cultivation of theCentral Africa type based on the slash-and-burn shifting cultivation system. In
further east however, one comes across with the banana-related culture similar tothat in East Africa, with such elements as the establishment of banana specialized
fields, the staple food consisting of the stew of banana cut in round slices andcommon bean, and the use of banana for brewing alcoholic beverages.
 On the other hand, in the Equatorial Province which lies at the center of DR
Congo on the south of the bend of Congo River, cassava was disseminated as thefood for slaves in the age of slavery, making this area the zone that depends heavily
on cassava cultivation among areas in Central Africa. There are certain areas withsandy soils that are not suited for banana cultivation.
 The Boyela people who live in Equatorial Province cultivate cassava as the main
crop along with maize, banana, yam, etc. Cassava and banana are consumed in thesame manner of preparation, namely, firstly they are cooked by boiling or steaming,then pounded and made into ball11).
 The Ngandou people who live to the north of the Boyela also cultivate cassava as
the main crop but grow banana as well. Bananas are roasted by exposing them to acharcoal fire or flames and consumed for light meals. Bananas are also used as amaterial for distilling spirit13).
 This zone used to be one of those where cassava was introduced early andconsequently there the importance of bananas is relatively low. Although in certain
areas like the Ngandou bananas are consumed only as light meals, because they arestill prepared to make ball and served together with other side dishes as the generalcase in Central Africa, DR Congo could be considered as the zone where the earlier
tradition of banana cultivation has deteriorated in the course of history.
䐠 Republic of the Congo (Congo)
Although in Congo as a whole cassava is the crop with the largest volume of
production, in certain areas there are farmers who cultivate bananas as the main crop.
The Bobanda people living in the marshlands along the Motaba River in Likouala
Department in the northeastern part of the country also cultivate bananas as the main
crop. Bananas are planted on the plots under a slash-and-burn regime together withother crops of about 20 different species. In certain cases, a staple food crop isplanted in a cacao field. As a matter of fact, cacao was not planted in the 1990s
because of the instability of the market for it, but before the decade it was likely thatcacao might have been planted
to the field of a staple foodcrop to convert the plot to acacao orchard after harvesting
the food crop. The infestationof weeds surpasses the efforts
for eliminating them, andhence after the harvest of
cassava, farmers collect the
PhotoII-3 Planting of banana (Congo)
fruits of bananas that are able
Credit: K. Komatsutorenovatethemselves
spontaneously even in the bush. Cultural management operations such as thetending of suckers and the elimination of male inflorescences are not practiced. All
cultivars of cooking banana are plantains and 57 of them have been reported6).
People serve for supper the dishes of banana as the staple food without fail, which
are either the ball prepared by beating steamed bananas hundreds of times or the
mashes prepared by beating steamed bananas lightly a few times. Bananas areoften given as a gift among intimate friends, in particular playing an important rolein maintaining social relationship of women. Moreover, around the Bobanda
community there are other ethnic groups of people living on the cultivation of
cassava as the main crop, and hence the banana cultivation constitutes an element of
the ethnic identity of the Bobanda.
䐡 Cameroon
In all parts of Cameroon, bananas are cultivated in mixture with cash crops suchas cacao and coffee and with other self-reliance crops such as cassava and maize.
The types of banana cultivation in Cameroon are classified into those of threezones4).
 South Region, the southern part of East Region, and the southern part of Centre
Region are located in low-altitude areas with the annual rainfall of 1500 mm – 2000
mm and with a low population density. In this zone, following cassava and maize,
plantain bananas come as the next important crop. The agriculture in this zone ischaracterized by the slash-and-burn fields leaving selectively certain tree species andthe mixed intercropping of the self-reliance crops such as plantain bananas, yautea,
melons, groundnut and maize, with the cash crops such as cacao and coffee. In
Centre Region lying close to the state capital there are fields for mixed cropping of
bananas for shipping to the capital markets, where yautea is integrated in the mixture
because it is also marketable. Banana can be either processed into ball by boiling or
steaming followed by pounding or consumed as it is after simply boiling or
steaming4).
 The Bangandou people living in the tropical rainforest in East Region growplantain bananas in mixture with other staple food crops or cacao through the cyclicuse of the secondary forest generated by fallowing for dozens of years. Among 22
cultivars of banana observed in this zone, the number of those of AAA type is 4 andthat of the plantains of AAB type is 189）. Above all, the cultivars of Horn plantains
that grow fast and produce numerous suckers are cultivated abundantly. Except forweeding of a few times, banana crop receives little care after planting, and theoperations of selection of suckers and elimination of male inflorescence are notobserved. Once or twice a year, a farmer opens a new plantain plot to plant several
cultivars of different maturity. Since the farmer continues to harvest bananas forseveral years after finishing the harvest of other crops from plots that have almost
reverted to bushes, he is able to raise a stable income out of several pieces of land. In
certain villages, 51 % of ingredients for the staple food are composed of plantainbananas, and the annual consumption per capita of plantain bananas amounts to 382
kg on the edible part basis, a daily equivalent of 1.1 kg. The standard staple foodconsists of the ball prepared by pounding steamed bananas, in addition to whichsteamed or grilled bananas are consumed as light meals12). The Baka people wholive in the close vicinity of the Bangandou and used to engage in hunting-gatheringin the tropical rainforest nowadays pursue the agricultural activities in mixed
cropping with banana as the main crop in the fields under shifting cultivation. It isconceivable that the type of banana cultivation in this zone in which, except for thelabor for opening land and for planting, little additional effort is required has been an
agricultural system that is easily acceptable for the hunter-gatherers 8）.

Upper left, upper right: Process of slash-and-burn  Middle left: A mixed
intercropping field Middle right: Harvesting banana Lower: ball-shaped banana
dishPhoto II-4 Cultivation and utilization of bananas in East of Cameroon
Credit K. Kitanishi for upper left, K. Komatsu for the othersThe zone comprising the western part of Cameroon, the coastal area of the Gulf ofGuinea, and the foot of Mount Cameroon is that with the annual rainfall of 2,000 –
4,000 mm, and with a medium population density. In colonial era, plantation farms
including those for growing dessert bananas were developed. Currently, in almost all
farm fields of subsistence crops either cacao or coffee is planted or both are planted
in mixture. As a staple food crop banana plays an important role following yautea,taro, and cassava. Regarding the cooking method, it is cut in round slices and stewedwith palm oil, or often simply boiled and steamed for consumption as it is4).
Southwest Province and West Province in the southwestern inland part aresituated in highlands at an altitude of 1,200 m – 2,700 m, having the annual rainfallof more than 2,000 mm. The population density is very high and the agriculturalland is fragmented. Banana is planted in mixture with subsistence crops or withcoffee. As staple food crops, maize, yautea, taro, potato, and banana are important inthat order. Regarding cooking methods, banana is often stewed together with meat,common bean, or vegetables to make a food with a consistency of putty, which isdifferent from the staple food in the form of ball that the general method of banana
cooking in Central Africa produces. Banana may sometimes be consumed as it isafter simply boiling or steaming4).
䐢 Ghana and Ivory CoastIn Ghana plantain banana is the second most important ingredient after cassava
for preparing the staple food and people consume on average 83 kg of plantainbanana per capita and spend 3 % of the total expenditure for food to buy it3). The
production of plantain banana by a small-scale farmer is carried out on a field plot of
0.2 – 0.8 ha under shifting cultivation. The shifting cultivation used to be carried out
by using the primary forest or the secondary forest of more than 30 years ofregeneration period, but as a consequence of the expansion of cacao fields and the
population growth, the fallow periods have been reduced to 3 – 9 years. Plantains areoften grown in mixture with oil palm that is native to West Africa. In order tocompensate for the reduction of fallow period, the agroforestry technique isincreasingly practiced. Neither fertilizers nor agricultural chemicals are utilized.
The observable manner of cultivation of plantain bananas varies and includes: thecultivation in mixture with root crops such as cassava and yam; the transition toplantain banana by following cocoyams growing spontaneously and the association
with other tree crops such as lemon, palm oil, cacao, or coffee. The monoculture ofplantain banana is sometimes encountered, although the case is rare.
 There 14 – 15 cultivars of plantain banana, and those of Horn type and False Horntype that can be harvested in 15 – 18 months, and those of French Horn type that canbe harvested in 18 – 24 months are grown.
 The variations of cooking or processing method include: fufu prepared bypounding boiled or steamed immature plantains of Horn type; ambesi prepared byboiling or steaming of plantains of French type; and the flour processed by grinding
deep-fried or dried chips of sliced bananas. Recently the demand for the fufu flour is
growing.
 Moreover, there are handicrafts for fabrication of ropes and doormats from thefibers of pseudostems.
 In Ivory Coast yams and rice constitute the important staple food crops but
plantain bananas are also important as ingredients for preparing the staple food10).
Frequently observed cropping systems for growing plantain bananas include: theassociation with other tree crops such as cacao, coffee, palm oil, rubber, or cola; themixed cultivation with yams, maize, groundnut, taro, cassava, or other vegetables;
and the association with both tree crops and food crops. There are certain cases ofthe monoculture of plantain banana as a cash crop, or the intensive cultivation of it ina small scale in the vicinity of urban areas where living wastes are applied as manure.
Cultivars of Horn type plantains and some cultivars of French type plantains havebeen recognized as landraces, and recently the different cultivars of False Horn type
plantains and French type plantains have been imported. The food preparation
procedures are similar to those in Ghana. Cavendish banana is also cultivated forexports.

Literature cited in Chapter II
1) Akyeampong, E.. 1999, Plantain production, marketing and consumption in West
and Central Africa, in Picq, C., E. Fouré and E. A. Frison eds., Bananas and Food
Security –Les productions bananières: un enjeu écoconomique majeur pour lasécurité alimentaire, INIBAP, 353-359.
2) Ankei, Y. 1981, Agriculture and economic activities of Songola people–
Shifting cultivation in rainforest of Central Africa, Quarterly Journal of
Anthropology, 12(1): 96-183. (in Japanese)3) Banful, B. 1999, Production of plantain, an economic prospect for food security
in Ghana. in Picq, C., E. Fouré and E. A. Frison eds., Bananas and Food Security–Les productions bananières: un enjeu écoconomique majeur pour la sécurité
alimentaire, INIBAP,151-160.
4) Bikoi, A. 1999, Les Production bananières au Cameroun: étude de cas. In Picq,
C., E. Fouré and E. A. Frison eds, Bananas and Food Security –Les productions
bananières: un enjeu écoconomique majeur pour la sécurité alimentaire, INIBAP,
89-101.
5) De Langhe, E. and P. De Maret 1999, Tracking the banana: its significance inearly agriculture, in Gosden, C. C. and J. Hather eds., The Prehistory of Food:
Appetites for change, Routledge, London, 377-396.
6) Hanawa, R. 2002 Semi-cultivation and co-creation – A discussion on the forest
culture of shifting cultivators in Central Africa, Course – Ecologicalanthropology 7, compiled by H. Terashima, Ethno-science, Kyoto University
Press, 71-119. (in Japanese)
7) Hanawa, R., K. Kitanishi, K. Komatsu and S. Maruo 2005, An Essay on the
Culture of Banana Cultivation. in Matsui T. and S. Aungusmalin eds., Multiply
Useful Plants: Uses and Usefulness, Tokyo: Research Institute for Language andCultures of Asia and Africa, Tokyo University of Foreign Studies, 75-93.
8) Kitanishi, K. 2002, The Acceptance of Banana Cultivation among the Baka
Hunter-gatherers in Tropical Rainforest of Central Africa, Bulletin of the Facultyof Education, Yamaguchi University, 52(1):51-69. (in Japanese)9) Komatsu, K., K. Kitanishi, S. Maruo, R. Hanawa 2006, Comparative Study ofBanana-Farming Cultures in Asia and Africa: With Special Reference to theDiversity of Local Cultivars, Asian and African area studies, 6(1): 77-119. (inJapanese)10) Ortiz, R. and M. O. Akoroda eds. 1996, Plantain and Banana: Production andResearch in West and Central Africa, IITA, 166pp.
11) Sato, H. 1984, The subsistence of the Boyela – Utilization and cultivation of
cassava. Studies on African Culture, compiled by J. Itani & T. Yoneyama,
Academia Press, 671-697. (in Japanese)
12) Shikata, K. 2004, Sustainable Plantain Production in Secondary Forest: A
Shifting Cultivation System in the Tropical Rain Forest of Southeastern
Cameroon, Asian and African area studies, 4(1):4-35. (in Japanese)
13) Suehara, T. 1990 Food production in equatorial Africa, Dohosha, 334 pp. (inJapanese)
14) Takeda, J. 1987, Diet ecology of the Ngandou– Subsistence and feeding ofshifting cultivators in the Congo Basin, Africa - Ethnological studies, Dohosha,
1071-1137. (in Japanese)Chapter III. Cultivation and utilization of cooking bananasin Uganda
Republic of Uganda situated in the Great Lakes Region in East African inland is acountry where the activities associated with the production, distribution, andconsumption of bananas are very much flourishing. Bananas are influencing not
only the livelihood economy in rural areas but also vegetation and many othersectors including culture, politics and national economy. The banana cultivation
includes the domain of agricultural production and can also be perceived as an entity
existing in a much wider context, i.e., “livelihood system based on bananas” 17),19) .
This perception would explain the reason why Uganda is also called “Country of
Banana” in the sense that is different from the aspect that the national economy
depends on the production and the export of primary products under external
initiatives such as those of multinational enterprises.

1. Production and distribution
1) Production
While published figures of production volume of bananas differ depending on themethods of estimation, it is a sure fact that Uganda outstands among other banana
producing countries in Africa and the entire world. According to the statistics of
FAO the value for 2008 is reported to be 9,986,000 tons which exceeds that for thePhilippines, 8,687,624 tons, and is the second largest after that for India, 23,204,800
tons. The value comprises 9,371,000 tons for cooking bananas (presented asplantains), accounting for the largest portion, and 615,000 tons for dessert banana(presented as banana). It is not known into which category the bananas used for
brewing alcoholic beverages are classified.
In Uganda most of bananas are grown in Regions other than the North (East,
Central, West). At the beginning of the 20th century, bananas were cultivatedabundantly as the primary staple food for ethnic groups of the Bantu people,
particularly the Ganda and the Soga who dwelled in the vicinities of the LakeVictoria. Moreover, the production increased in the Southwest by the 1960s. For
example, the total area of banana fields was 45,000 acres (about 18,000 ha), but it
expanded 12-fold to 561,000 acres (about 227,000 ha) by 1965, and the majority of
the increase reportedly took place in the areas inhabited by the Ankole people4).
The evolution of the national production since the 1960s is shown in Fig. III -1. It
is indicated as a general trend that Uganda experienced rapid expansion from thelatter half of the 1960s to the 1970s, and an abrupt fall from 1979 to 1981 due to thewar with Tanzania. Subsequently after the intense internal conflict in the 1980s,
Museveni took the power in 1986, and the banana production continued to increase
until around 2000. Since 2000 the rate of increase seems to be stagnating.
A close examination of the situation of different zones within the country showsthat the production differs greatly among zones and the major cultivation zones
moved during the period from 1970 to 1990. During this period, the production in
the Central Region, traditional zone of production, decreased due to shortages oflabor, insufficient management capacity, increase of pests and diseases, anddepletion of soil nutrients. At the same time, the banana production in the Southwest
progressively increased as the reliable source of supply to meet the demand forƚŚĂbananasϭϮ͕ϬϬϬ͕ϬϬϬ consumed as the staple food by the growing populationϯ͕ϬϬϬ͕ϬϬϬ of capital,
5)
Kampalapublished in 1992ϭϬ͕ϬϬϬ͕ϬϬϬ . The result of the government agricultural census Ϯ͕ϱϬϬ͕ϬϬϬ
生産量WƌŽĚƵĐƚŝŽŶ(Fig. III-2) shows that the largest production center in Uganda existed in theϮ͕ϬϬϬ͕ϬϬϬϴ͕ϬϬϬ͕ϬϬϬSouthwest, and the areas around the Lake Victoria were the next importantϭ͕ϱϬϬ͕ϬϬϬϲ͕ϬϬϬ͕ϬϬϬ
production center. Since the 1990s until todaythisĂƌĞĂ
overall situation has changed
栽培面積ƵůƚŝǀĂƚĞĚ
ϭ͕ϬϬϬ͕ϬϬϬϰ͕ϬϬϬ͕ϬϬϬ
little.
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Fig. III-1 Evolution of production and cultivated area of bananas in Uganda
Source: FAOSTAT



Unit

Fig. III-2 Banana production by district (Apr. 1990 – Mar. 1991)
Source: Prepared by Y. Sato from data of Ministry of Agriculture,
Animal Industry and Fisheries, Uganda 1992

2) Distribution
Bananas in Uganda are mostly distributed and consumed within the country. A
tiny fraction of cooking bananas are exported by air cargo to Europe and put on
shelves of grocery stores in cities like London. About the feasibility of transport bysea through the port of Mombassa has been studied but at the moment the routes ofmarketing are still being explored. As the market for dessert bananas, Middle East
has a potential, but the substantial overseas demand for cooking bananas has not yet
been identified.
Regarding the domestic banana distribution, Ngambeki13) and Yoshida20) haveconducted detailed studies. In Uganda the distribution of food including bananas until now has been mostly
carried out in the framework of free market economy. The system of building
reserves of cereals that had been institutionalized in East Africa under British ruleduring the World War II had dealt with mainly maize, wheat and finger millet, hadlittle impact on Uganda and was abolished in 1952. Afterward, the Produce
Marketing Board established in the form of public corporation in 1962 also
managed only a fraction of the total volume of distribution, and the structure ofboard was abolished in the 1990s, under the government economic policy of market
liberalization20).
With respect to banana distribution, in harmony with the expansion of productionin the Southwest in responding to the growth of the capital since the 1970s, there
occurred the progressive development of a unique intraregional distribution systemthrough the intermediary of a series of actors, which enabled fresh bananas to reachas far as urban retail stores without losing freshness. Nowadays a share of about
70 % of banana supply to Kampala markets is taken by the Southwest and 20 % by
the East13).
 Thus far the marketing system of bananas has historically evolved throughundergoing several phases. Firstly during the period from 1960 to 1979 acooperative movement was promoted to control the market but it failed in the 1980s.
Later a strong group of middlemen gained power to monopolize the market
information and to take a share of 30 to 60 % of consumer prices. The current
banana distribution system is constituted by numerous actors including farmers,
several types of wholesalers, middlemen, haulers, urban wholesalers, and retailers.
As a result of the improvement of farmers’ accessibility to market information, theirposition has been so elevated that nowadays they are able to receive a share of up toabout 60 % of consumer prices13). In the districts of Mbarara and Bushenyi in
Western Region, the cases in which farmers’ cooperatives intervene between
producers and trucking operators are observed but such cases are only few4).
 The routes of banana distribution are shown in Fig. III-3. Producers, traders,retailers participate in it and up to about 6 persons intervene until the product reaches
the end-consumer. In the processes of distribution chain, the product is traded basedon various units (kg, fruit finger, fruit hand, bunch, pile) and the price is determinedby the size of finger, hand and bunch, by the number of hands per bunch, by cultivar,
season, place, etc.
 As a particular type of actors in the distribution chain, we can cite the traders on
bicycle who visit individual small farmers one by one to purchase bananas andtransport the products to local merchants. Because they purchase products directlyfrom farmers, they are also called village buyers20). These are not professionalmerchants but young persons from farming households who voluntarily visit
farmers, negotiate prices, buy, and transport the agricultural products to markets or
depots located along principal roads. In certain cases where producers and traders
are on friendly terms, traders directly select the merchandise out of bunches still
hanging in the fields. By the existence of such a type of buyers, the ubiquitous
networks of distribution are always functioning and enable many rural producers to
be connected to urban markets without the need for going out.
 Another important category of actors includes those who purchase the collected
products and haul them a long distance to urban markets and sell the merchandise toother wholesalers or retailers. They are called “transporter/wholesaler” and wellversed in the situation of both production areas and the demand in urban markets.
They are not the employees of other organizations like large companies who aresimply executing the job of hauling the merchandise, but they are the independent
entrepreneurs operating their own business, and they are not composed of people ofa particular ethnic group either. The trucks they use are mostly rented vehicles18).

Producer
Village

Village buyer

Middleman (village)

Area broker
Stage broker

Distributor(Roadside market)(Roadside market)

Rural area –towns(Main trading posts)
Transporter/wholesaler

Urban wholesaler

Market broker

Retailer

Cities/Towns

Urban consumers

Fig. III-3 Routes of banana distribution from production sites to urban
markets in Uganda
Source: Ngambeki 2006, Yoshida 2006



Photo III-1 Trader on bicycle
purchasing bananas in villages (village
buyer)
Credit: Y. Sato

Photo III-2 Truck loaded withbananas (transporter/wholesaler)

Credit: Y. Sato
On a single bicycle made in China, a trader is Each banana bunch is protected by leaf
able to carry up to 6 clusters of about 30 kg each sheaths. The truck makes many roundtrips
simultaneously.
on the trunk routes connecting rural areas
with the capital.

2. Cropping system
1) Home garden system
The banana cropping systems in East and South Africa as a whole are classified
into the following three categories8):
䐟 Backyard systems providing an auxiliary function for the livelihood
䐠 Banana subsistence systems playing the principal role in the livelihood
䐡 Plantation systems
Most of the banana cultivation systems in the Great Lakes Region (inlandhighlands) including Uganda correspond to the category 䐠. This system isnotably characterized by the agriculture that is predominantly autonomous andpracticed on the basis of dispersed as well as sedentary residences, and on banana
fields constituting large home gardens tended by the labor available in households
consisting of married couples and their children.
 Bananas are mostly grown as a single crop in the fields established around theresidences and make up a “pure forest” but can also be planted in mixture withvarious other crops. Bananas are treated as perennial crops and stocks are renewed insitu, and the continuous cropping for long duration is practiced10),18). The bananafield possesses complexity comprising elements in terms of many factors including
component cultivars, soils, topography, pests and diseases, management techniques,utilization methods, etc.
 Concerning this type of agriculture, scholars have pointed out the fact that people
with a situation of limited land and capital resources still have managed to achieve
the self-sufficiency within a local community by trying to cultivate diverse cultivars
based on mixed cropping and complex agriculture, and that people are not disposed
to introduce readily modern technology such as mechanization8). In short this canbe considered as the indigenous agriculture aiming at both the plant resource
diversity and the livelihood stability.
Fig III-4 shows the map of house and home garden of a certain faming householdfound in Central Region of Uganda. In the ground close to the house the soil is bareand hardened by treading, and the banana field extends around it and is carefully
watched and cared continuously all year round. Beside the house a “detached house”
accompanies it and there every meal is prepared. The premise includes all otherfacilities: bathing area, arbor where tree barks are processed to make cloth, W. C.,
and graves. Pigs and fowls also are often reared inside the banana field. Bananas for

Photo III-3 Distant view of a ruralcommunity in the vicinity of theLake Victoria
Credit: Y. Sato

Photo III-4 Banana field adjoining
a house (home garden)
Credit: Y. Sato

Light green patches on hillside are banana
fields and dark green spots are trees.

the staple food, brewing, and dessert are planted in the banana field which is divided
into different sections according to their use, since often those for the staple food areplanted near the house, and those for brewing and dessert are raised in remotesections away from the house or areas bordering on neighboring farms. Besides,
the boundary between the home garden and outlying areas is distinct. On the
periphery of banana field, trees of a species of Moraceae Ficus natalensis, or a
eucalyptus are often planted, or sometimes fences are built by using cassava stalks.
The principal objective of erecting fences is to prevent the invasion by neighbors’
animals such as dogs, cattle, goats, and pigs. The disposition of banana fields withrespect to the house varies among different ethnic groups, but often they arearranged in a compact manner that allows people to spend most of daily life inmoving about only the area enclosing home garden and house.
2) Cultivation methods
When one takes notice of the crop
species in mixed cropping, two types
of farming systems can be cited as the
Banana field
representative ones which incorporate
W.C.
Arbor
bananas as the main crop12),15). One(bark processing)is the banana-coffee system. This
GravesDetached housesystem is present over a wide zone
Bathing area
centering on the coastal areas of theHouse
Lake Victoria and extending toEastern, Central and Western RegionsϭϬŵ
where the soils are fertile and the dry
season is short. In this system, a homegarden is plated with cooking bananas Fig. III-4 Example of home garden
found in Ganda, Central Region ofas the primary crop for family Uganda
consumption, to which trees ofSource: Created by Y. Sato
Robusta coffee (Coffea canephora)are added as a component of mixed cropping. The system has an advantage thatbanana plants serve as shading trees for coffee trees. It helps households earn
livelihood by the combination of banana as crop for subsistence and coffee as cash
crop, although recently cooking bananas have also become an actively tradedcommodity, as a result of the development of distribution system as mentioned
previously.
 Another cropping system is that of “banana-finger millet-cotton”. It is present in
the zone where the rainy season and the dry season are clearly distinguished and therainfall is relatively low. The zone lies slightly further north of the Central Region
where the former system extends. In addition to finger millet, other crops such as
cassava and sweet potato are also cultivated, and particularly in recent years it seems
that maize cultivation is replacing that of cotton. The banana cultivation is not as
active as in the “banana-coffee system”.
 In the “banana-coffee system”, the tree species that are considered to becompatible with bananas are recognized and often planted in fields (Table III-1).
This system consists of three strata of tall trees, banana and coffee or two of banana
and coffee.
 Each process of farming operations involved in banana cultivation differs infrequency and timing. They are classified into three classes, namely, those forstarting the cultivation in fields, daily routine, and those carried out several times ayear. Compared to the operations involved in the cereal cultivation, those for banana
are more flexible in terms of seasonal labor allocation. For instance, the sowing ofmaize that has to be done at the beginning of the rainy season is prioritized incomparison with the work associated with banana and the latter is often carried out
after the former has been finished. The following paragraphs explain the elevendifferent steps of farming work.
Table III-1 Examples of plant species that farmers consider as compatible
with banana in growth behavior
Term in Ganda
language
Mukunyu

Family nameSpecies name

Moraceae

Ficus mucuso

MutubaMoraceae

Ficus natalensis

MuvuleMoraceae

Milicia excels

MugavuLeguminosae

Albizia coriaria

MusiziRhamnaceae

Maesopsis eminiiMusambya

Bignoniaceae

Markhamia lutea

EnnimuRutaceae

Citrus limon

Muccungwa

Rutaceae

Citrus sinensis

Source: Created by Y. Sato

䐟 Reclamation, land preparation, digging hole
 Plots of land selected for banana fields are mainly those that are fertile and flat in
topography. The upper and middle parts of gently-sloping hills or the flat bottom
parts of steep hills are selected. In the Central Region of Uganda around the Lake
Victoria the former case predominates and the latter case is also found often in theWestern Region.
As the location for opening a new field, the bushes formed after long fallow
periods are preferred. New fields are often opened in the late part of the dry season
or early part of the rainy season. In the first place, branches of small trees are cut off
with a matchet and grasses are mowed with a sickle. The cut vegetation materials
are either piled on field borders or burnt. Sometimes the entire surface of the plot for
opening the field is burnt.
After removing the vegetation, holes for planting banana seedlings are dug with ahoe one by one at intervals of 3 – 4 m. A hole is in a shape of pot with the diameterof about 100 cm and the depth of about 50 cm. The operation of digging holetakes place either at the time of planting or in advance of planting. The work is easierto carry out after the onset of the rainy season because the soil is softer.
䐠 Transplanting The optimum time of transplanting is the early to middle part of the rainy season.
First of all it is needed to locate the suckers for transplanting. The ministry ofagriculture of Uganda recommends the planting of a small seedling that is preparedby cutting off the most part of pseudostem born on the upper portion of a rhizome.
The reason to remove the organs other than the minimum part that is essential for
growth is to prevent the expansion of diseases and insects that may have infectedcertain parts of rhizomes for seedlings. However, many farmers transplant large
suckers in which the length reaches that of human waist to human height, because of
the fact that plants grow and mature faster with such seedlings.
All the seedlings needed on a farm are sometimes supplied from the existingbanana fields on the same farm alone, but many households find it difficult toacquire on their own the numbers of seedlings needed for the planting season. In
such cases, it sometimes happens that farmers acquire the needed seedlings bybargaining with other households. When a farmer wishes to plant a new cultivar, he
has to obtain it from other farmers, too. In some villages, households cultivate a
specific cultivar and sell its suckers for 500 Uganda shillings per plant (about 30

Carrying of suckers
Planting of suckers
Photo III-5 Transplanting bananas
Credit: Y. Sato

Japanese yens, equivalent to the price of a bottle of Coca Cola of about 300 ml in
Uganda).
 Suckers are divided with a hoe from the parent stock. First of all, the soil aroundthe parent stock is removed to make a hole, and the rhizome parts are separated fromthe parent plant, suckers are taken out, and the soil is replaced to fill the hole. The
process of division of the stock requires a strong force for drawing out the plant
because the hoe edge is lodged firmly in rhizome. In the past farmers used to makeuse of a spear-shaped tool specifically designed for this operation that can still befound in limited houses. Lifted suckers are processed by peeling old sheaf sheaths
and cutting off all leaf blades and petioles. Some farmers remove also all the roots
present. However, in small seedlings, leaf blades are kept as they are. Oncesuckers are taken out, they are planted to new places on the same day or the next day.
They are put in the hole to stand upright and the basal portion is covered with soil all
round and compacted lightly by treading.
䐡 Pruning of leaves and leaf sheaths Pruning is carried out to remove dead leaf blades and excess leaves which are somany that they are hampering the plant growth itself. In order to carry out thisoperation, farmers use a special half-moon-shaped knife exclusively designed forpruning banana leaves or an ordinary-shaped knife mounted on a long wooden pole.
It is believed that the operation to cut off with the knife the leaf blade beyond thebase of petiole improves the plant appearance or enhances the plant growth. This
operation is carried out throughout the year.
 To prune dead leaf sheaths, a knife is employed. Dead leaf sheaths that are about
to peel off are cut off to expose fresh leaf sheaths. It is believed that this operation
enables the prevention of the inhabitation by insects between dead coverings and the
fresh leaf sheath on the pseudostem. This operation has no specific season for
execution.
㻌㻌䐢 Removal of male inflorescence
A little bit later than the emergence of the hand, the male inflorescence is cut off.
The objective of this operation is to enlarge the bunch. This operation is normally
carried out for cultivars used for the staple food, namely, clone sets other than
Mbidde among AAA-EA bananas (see Chapter I). More often than not the maleinflorescence is not removed in cultivars of Mbidde clone-set of AAA-EA and in
those of banana groups other than AAA-EA.
䐣 Thinning of suckers
Depending on the characteristics of cultivar, banana plants generate many suckers
and they are thinned out to reduce the number. It is generally believed that thepresence of about two suckers per parent stock is desirable, in which one is to bereserved for transplant. In thinning operation, the portion above ground of a sucker
is supposed to be cut off. The season of thinning is not defined.
䐤 Propping When a bunch gets larger, it is feared that a pseudostem becomes unable to standupright under its own weight and falls down. Hence, farmers often go aroundbanana fields to watch out for the plants that bear large bunch and are feared to falldown, so that they are able to prop up such plants timely by placing poles of 2 - 3 m
in length (Y-shaped wooden posts are often used) under the upper parts ofpseudostems.
䐥 Mulching
Dead leaves, dead leaf sheaths, and residues of aerial parts after harvest are left lying
on the ground as they are. Sometimes those materials are spread uniformly over the
ground surface to prevent the exposure of the soil. By such a practice, theinfestation of weeds can be retarded and the soil erosion due to rainfall can beprevented. However, certain households, on the contrary, gather with hoes fallen
leaves and fragments of leaf sheaths and lay them around the base of a banana plant.
This practice is based on the conceptthat instead of benefiting from theadvantage of mulching, it enables theconcentration of soil nutrients aroundthe plant.
䐦 Weeding Weeding is an important farming
Photo III - 6 Mulching of banana
operation directly affecting the banana
field
Credit: Y. Sato
growth. In concrete terms, weeds are
dug up with a hoe and set aside. It is alabor consuming operation like the digging and crushing of stumps after harvest.
This operation is considered to be the one which requires the longest hour ofcontinuous work among the total hours of banana cultivation labor. Weeding is often
carried out once every 2 to 3 months for each plot. The state of field management isevaluated by people of other households from the appearance of the field whichindicates whether weeding is properly executed or not.
䐧 Fertilization
Only a small minority of households practice fertilization (chemical, or cattle
manure). Nevertheless, those households which rear large numbers of cattle often set
up the banana fields on the spots where they had kept their cattle at night in thepreceding year. In some banana fields, the earth around banana plants is thickly
covered with ground coffee shells.
䐨 Harvest
Bananas can be harvested all year round. However, since the plant grows andmatures better in the rainy season, the most productive season corresponds to theperiod from late part of the great rainy season to early part of the dry season. The
least productive season falls on the early part of the rainy season succeeding thegreat dry season.
 Bananas are harvested by the unit of a bunch without fail and never by the unit ofhand or finger. Banana fruits mature, after having attained the maximum size, bystarting from the fingers nearest to the pseudostem, and peel color turns to yellow. If
they are to be consumed as the staple food, the optimum harvesting time is when the
fruits attain the maximum size but are not yet ripe. Harvesting is carried out by
making several cuts with a hatchet in the same plane into the pseudostem at a heightof about 1 m above ground, then felling the upper part slowly. After that the bunch is
cut off and carried away.
 The duration from planting to harvesting lasts about 1 to 2 years. In the
succeeding phase after the first harvesting from the new planting, the cycle timerequired for the growth before maturity becomes shorter, because the sucker of thenext generation has already been established.
䐩 Treatment of plant body after harvesting After harvesting, the felled pseudostem (with fruit axis) is cut up into several
pieces and left on the ground. A field management procedure is widely practiced, inwhich in order to control insect pests and diseases including weevils, fragments ofleaf sheaths are placed on the cross section of stump to attract weevils and later on
the fragments are discarded together with weevils.

3. Maintenance of banana diversity
1) Cultivars and utilization methods
In Uganda bananas of diverse genome types including AAA-EA are cultivated,
and they are all different in characteristics with respect to growth and utilization.
Table III-2 presents the relationship between the genome type/cultivar and the
preparation method of principal bananas in Uganda.

Table III -2 Relationship between banana types/cultivars and different
preparation methods in Uganda
Genome type andcultivar

Steaming
Making Frying
Eatingfor
Pee 䋻㻌 Steam Boiling Roasting Juice/raw
brewing cakes
䋻peel
steam

Mbidde䕧䕧䕧䖣
clone-set
AAAClone-setsEA䖣䖣䖣other than
MbiddeAAA Bogoya䕧䕧䕧䖣(Gros Michel)
ABB Sukali Ndiizi䖣䖣
AAB Gonja (Plantain)䕧䖣
ABB Kivuvu
䖣䖣
ABB Musa
䖣
ABB Kayinja
䖣AB Kisubi
䖣
AAAA , AAAB,䖣䖣䖣䖣AABB FHIA‫ۑ‬: Practiced  ‫ڹ‬: Rarely practiced or practiced in very limited households
Sources: Sato 2004, Edmeades and Karamura 2007

䖣䖣䖣

AAA-EA type bananas include dozens of cultivars and they account for the majorpart of the total number of banana cultivars. Bananas of AAA-EA other than
Mbidde clone-set are specialized for the consumption as the staple food by either
steaming or boiling, except for the case in which they are eaten raw by children for
nibbling. On the other hand, in bananas other than AAA-EA group, there are no
cultivars which can be used as the staple food. ABB cultivar called Kivuvu issteamed with peel on but this is just for light meals. As an exceptional case, AAA
Bogaya is cooked and served as the staple food in Kalangala Island in the Lake
Victoria.
As materials for making juices and alcoholic beverages, the flesh of not only
cultivars of Mbidde clone-set of AAA-EA, but also that of cultivars of diverse
genotypes is used. Among them, the cultivar that can be propagated relatively easilyis the cultivar called Kayinja the flesh of which is mixed with that of other cultivars
and processed into juices and alcoholic beverages.
2) Selection of cultivars
As mentioned in Chapter I, in Uganda many cultivars of AAA-EA banana are
cultivated and maintained by each of farming households. The mechanism by which
the diversity is maintained involves many complex factors including the knowledge
and behavior of farmers, social relationships, the morphological diversity of plants,
etc. Since the 1990s until now, studies form various viewpoints have been
conducted.
Selection criteria of cultivars by farmers are as follows: 䐟 availability of
seedlings, 䐠 duration before harvest, 䐡 sustainability of the stock for many
generations (longevity), 䐢～䐤 tolerances to low fertility of soil, droughts andinsect pests, 䐥 taste, 䐦 marketing factors (bunch size and salability) 6)7) . However,since people behave based on various manners of thinking in response to changing
circumstances, the composition of cultivars in the actual field does not necessarilyreflect the fixed criteria (taste and strategy).16)
Some studies try to identify the social and spatial units that enable the cultivar
preservation, by integrating the information acquired through surveys conducted on
micro elements such as individual fields and households. First of all, it has beenreported that the cultivar diversity is maintained not on the level of village but on thelevel of much smaller unit, i.e., that of field3). Moreover, it has been pointed out thatthe number of years of utilization of field is correlated with the number of cultivars14).
Thus, from now on it would become necessary to develop studies and promotemeasures of in situ conservation of the cultivars, by taking account of the differences
existing within a local community between the households (fields) having many
cultivars and those having few.

4. Utilization
 In Uganda bananas are used for diverse purposes. Fig. III-5 presents principal usesfor each part. They not only are used for food but also infiltrate deeply into dailymaterial culture. Moreover, the plant parts that are most frequently used are flesh,leaf and leaf sheath.
1) Use for food(1) Staple food Meals for cultivators in Africa generally consist of a dish containing a starchy
ingredient without seasoning suited for mass consumption (staple food) and anotherdish of strongly seasoned sauce to dip the former for eating (side dish) 9). In
agricultural areas in Uganda as well, meals are essentially composed of the set ofstaple food and side dish, and the daily interest of people concerns how to enrich thiscombination, what kinds of food to acquire, and how to prepare them. Among thembanana is one of many ingredients for the staple food, and in many localities it isplaced at a particularly high position in the social value system. The frequency of
appearance of bananas varies greatly depending on households. According to asurvey in the 1990s covering the whole country, in the areas where bananas wereconsumed as the staple food, the weekly frequency varied from 1.6 times to 12.4
times (7.8 times on average). Other items for the staple food include, sweet potato,yams, cassava, cocoyam, maize, finger millet, pumpkin, and rice.
As seen in the following sections, in Uganda there are numerous ways of
preparation for banana food. Presentation is made to explain mainly the preparation
methods in Ganda in the Central Region of Uganda where the most complex
utilization system is practiced.

Ornament
Mulching fields
Food
Flesh

RitualFruit
Peel
DryingLeaf
axis
BananaLeaf

Tobacco material
Fumigation, disinfection of water pot
Basket material

Peel, dryLeaf (blade, whole leaf)

Wrapping, SpatulaMat
Animal feed
Fire lighter(At funeral) mat(Dead leaf)
Leaf
sheathForageDead leaf
sheathString, ropeMat

Pseudostem

Flower stem

SpongeMale bud

Lid

Fig III-5 Different parts of banana and their main use
Source: Created by Y. Sato䐟 Matooke
In language of the Ganda people, both the banana dish served as the staple foodand the banana itself that is used as the ingredient for preparing the staple food arecalled “matooke”. The word applies equally to the singular and the plural. The word
is accepted widely not only in rural areas but also even in the urban areas ofKampala, irrespective of the difference in languages spoken. Matooke as aprepared dish is one which is made by cooking peeled unripe banana flesh byadding water. Cooked banana is either mashed to transform the texture or left as it is.
In cooking, “boiling” method is used in many areas including Ankole in thesouthwestern part of Uganda and Haya in the northwestern part of Tanzania (Photo
III-7).
The Ganda people besides regularly employ other refined methods undergoing
the process of “steaming”. They classify matooke dishes into three categories,
according to the differences in procedures, i.e., boiling or steaming for cooking, andmashing or no mashing after cooking (after steaming, banana is always mashed).
In addition to matooke, there is also a dish called “katogo” which is prepared bymixing other ingredients.
㻌㻔㼍㻕 Boiling only without mashing (Photo III - 8)
 A dish in which bananas are peeled with a knife and put into a pot and boiled withwater until the water gets low and the cooked bananas are not mashed. Normallystir-fried tomato or onion is added together with condiments but sometimes nothingelse is added. This dish is made in order to prepare the food quickly or to add avariation to routine meals.

Photo III - 7 Dish of boiled bananas inHaya of the northwestern Tanzania
Credit: S. Maruo
Dish of unripe bananas boiled together with
common bean. It is taken along with chili, sour
milk, and/or soup.

Photo III - 8 Matooke (boiled
banana)Credit: Y. Sato (ditto for the following)㻔㼎㻕 Boiling and mashing
A dish in which bananas are cooked by the procedure similar to (a) and thencovered with banana leaves and mashed. This dish is not so popular in Ganda but inAnkole, banana dishes are prepared mainly by this procedure.
(c) Steaming and mashing Among the three categories of preparation, this method is the most complex one
and the dish is considered to be the most authentic matooke. It is prepared not only
for holiday lunches and festivities but also often for meals on ordinary days. It takes
much time and labor and it is needed to spend about three hours from peelingbananas to completion, and to watch the fire at a close distance during the cooking
process. This method is specific to the Central Region and deeply linked to thecultural value as seen in the custom in which the method is considered to be one ofthose manners that women are supposed to master before getting married.
Normally the flesh of unripe bananas is used, but sometimes ripe bananas withsweetness are used for children. However, in that case the latter are separated fromthe process for the unripe bananas. The following is the preparation procedure for(c) : Utensils and materials for preparation: pot, knife, (A) – (D), plenty of banana
leaves.
(A) Fingers (green unripe) of AAA-EA bananas other than Mbidde clone-set (refer
to Chap. I Sec. 2)(B) Fresh banana leaves from which main nervures have been chipped off, andbands made from split dead leaf sheaths(C) Leaf axis and fruit axis cut and bent to fit to the pot bottom(D) Leaves used for the previous cooking to cover the food during steaming The procedure is as follows. The method to peel fingers with a knife is the samewith that of the processes of (a) and (b).
１．Peeling bananas and making a pouch
 At first cover the interior of the basket by laying leaves. Pick fruit hands fromthe bunch, fingers from the hand, peel fingers one by one, and put peeled fingers
on the laid leaves to pile them up. When the pile is completed, mount leaves toclose the pouch of leaves and bind it with bands. By this process the pouchcontaining the banana flesh is completed.

Photo III-9 Peeling of bananas
with a knife

Photo III- 10 Making of a pouchfor steaming

2. Steaming Place (C) on the pot bottom to make a room above it. Pour water up to theupper level of leaf axis and fruit axis. Put the pouch prepared by step 1 on theaxes to keep it above the water on the bottom so that the pouch may not get
immersed, then place several fresh leaves and pieces of (D) on top of and aroundthe pouch to enclose it. Sometimes, in order to improve the airtightness, theentire setup is covered with another pot turned upside down. Then heat the pot
with a strong fire for more than 1 hour while watching the quantity of water on
the bottom.
3. Mashing and serving
 Remove the pot from the fire. Press hard the pouch from outside with both
hands to crush bananas until the form of bananas disappears and the mass turns
into paste. Place on the floor one leaf that has been used in cooking and put the
prepared food on it. People surround the food thus served. People make spatulafrom banana leaf, use it for taking each one’s portion, and eat with fingers. Theauthor actually measured the amount of food intake and found out that on averagean adult man consumed about 1.1 kg per meal.

Photo III-11 Preparing ofpouch for steaming

Photo III-12 Scene of meal with matooke

To enhance airtightness, thepouch is covered with leaves usedin the previous cooking.

㻌ղ㻌 Katogo The term applies to dishes mixing
the staple food with other materials
and specifically the dish of the cooked
staple food with common bean. In
urban areas, often the preparation ofentrails is mixed. There are various
recipes including the frequent cases of
mixture of cassava with common
bean, that of cassava with banana andcommon bean, and that of sweet
potato with common bean. Recipes ofkatogo in rural areas often combine

Photo III -13 Katogo served in an
urban restaurant
In addition to banana, it also contains entrailsof cattle.

cassava with common bean, etc.
ճ㻌 Empogola
 This is a dish in which bananas are steamed without peeling. Bananas are often
steamed simultaneously with matooke, namely, by placing them on the top of flesh
pouch. The cultivars used for this cooking method are those of AAA-EA and an
ABB cultivar called Kivuvu. In the case of Kivuvu, ripe bananas are cooked forserving as a light meal, but the Empogola of AAA-EA has more of significance as aritual element.
(2) Light meals
ձ㻌 Kabalagala
This is a cake processed from ingredients consisting of the flesh of cultivars ofdessert banana and cassava flour. At first, banana flesh is crushed and mixed wellwith cassava flour to make paste. Then it is molded into a disk shape and fried withoil on a strong fire until the surface turns golden for finishing.
As ingredient banana, an ABB cultivar called Sukali Ndiizi (also referred to as“apple banana”) is normally used. Alternatively the AAA cultivar of dessert banana,Gros Michel, can also be used but the kabalagala made from ABB bananas tastes
better. The name of this food derives from a word of the Ganda people“oku-balagala (hot)”. It is said that red pepper also used to be added until the 1970s.
Since the 1980s, people ceased to use red pepper, and it seems that ever sincechildren have become able to consume this cake. From the field observation of thepresent author, 3.1 kg of bananas (73 fingers) and 1.5 kg of cassava flour could
make about 125 disk-shaped cakes of 6 cm in diameter and 1 cm in thickness.
ղ㻌 Gonja
Gonja signifies bananas of AAB plantain subgroup and their cooked products. To
cook gonja, generally peeled bananas are grilled until the surface get burnt a little.
They are consumed for light meals. The banana flesh can be unripe as well as ripeaccording to the taste of consumer. The production volume of gonja is very small in
Uganda and it is rarely taken in rural areas. In urban areas however, it is often soldon the roadside mainly in the hours from early evening to night and peddlers also
trade actively at the rest areas forlong-distance busses located along thetrunk roads connecting towns.
In Kampala recently one comes acrossmore frequently burnt bananas (not sweet)
accompanying fowl dishes. These are notgonja but matooke bananas grilled on a
Photo III – 14 Gonja
charcoal fire.
(3) Beverages
Beverages made from banana include juice, brewed liquors, and distilled spirits.
Juice is more often made for family consumption but brewed liquors and distilled
spirits are often processed by farmers for selling purposes. The transport of distilled
spirits between districts is prohibited by the government.
ձ㻌 Juice（Omubisi）
This is a fruit juice made from the flesh taken out of well force-ripened bananas. It
is also an intermediate product in the course of brewing alcoholic beverages.
ղ㻌 Brewed liquors (Tonto)
This is an alcoholic beverage brewed from the juice extracted from the flesh offorce-ripened bananas. First of all, harvested bananas are force-ripened. The method
varies depending on different places. In the area around the capital Kampala,bunches are split along the axes into two portions, placed on wooden shelves,
covered with dead banana leaves, and heated with a fire built below them on whicha banana pseudostem is placed to generate water vapor. The required duration forforce-ripening is about a week. In areas around Masaka in the west of the LakeVictoria, people dig a hole, cover the bottom with banana leaves, put fingers there
and cover them with leaves.
Then the juice is fermented in a container. Containers and the additives (starters)
for fermentation used in Uganda are presented in Table III – 3.
Table III – 3 Containers and additives (starters) for fermentation used in Uganda
Container
Wooden boat
(banana boat)
Earthenware
Gourd
Hole lined withplastic film
Source: Aked 1993

Additive (starter)
Roasted and ground sorghum
Finger millet grains and roasted and ground sorghum that wereused in the previous fermentation
Finger millet grains and roasted and ground sorghum that wereused in the previous fermentation
Sorghum used in the previous fermentation

Among methods using these containers, the preparation using wooden boat is
carried out as follows: first of all, the juice is squeezed out by treading slowly the
mixture of grasses and the flesh of force-ripened bananas and drained into a pot;
then the juice is poured onto a horizontally long wooden receptacle called “bananaboat” and water is added; the juice can sometimes be squeezed by treading the flesh
in the banana boat (Photo III – 15); the top of the banana boat is covered withbanana leaves and the contents are letstand for a few days for finishing theprocess. Roasted and roughly groundmaize grains are added into thebanana boat. Since non-germinatedseeds are used, the maize isconsidered to be added not as afermentation starter but simply as a
Photo III - 15 Preparation of brewed
substance to control the taste.
liquorsճ㻌 Distilled alcoholic beverage (Waragi)
 Waragi is strong sprituous liquor that is distilled abundantly in rural areas in theWestern and the Central Regions. The fermented liquid is poured into an exclusive
drum (normally of 200 liters) equipped with a tube and boiled on a strong open firebuilt below it. The generated vapor is let pass through the tube and distilled andcollected to complete the process. A large quantity of waragi is produced in rural
areas in the Western and the Central Regions. In many areas it is made by distilling
brewed liquor but in Kasese District in the Western Region it is made by distillingthe fermented product that is prepared by mixing the flesh of ripened bananas withwater in a bag of plastic film or in a drum and letting the mixture stand for several
days to soften the flesh 1).
The residues of distillation in a color of grey to black are also used as an agent forbonding bricks in construction work.
2) Other uses Aside from the use as food, banana plants are utilized for diverse purposes
focusing on material culture. The organs utilized particularly often are leaves andpseudostems.
ձ㻌 Luwombo (pl. Mpombo)
Besides the use of flesh as the staple food, leaves also are used efficiently for foodpreparation. Luwombo is an accompanying dish that is prepared by simultaneous
steaming and boiling of meat, vegetables and water enclosed in leaf pouches, which
is often made for the occasions of family festivities and Christmas. Contrary to thecase of matooke where the flesh contained in a pouch is steamed, in that ofluwombo, water also is added to the contents of small envelopes, and hence theingredients are boiled while envelopes are steamed. The following is the cooking
procedure.
1. Acquire young and soft banana leaves with few fissures.
2. With a knife, cut off petioles, chip off the protrusion of main nervure, and cutoff both ends. Burn lightly the entire area of both faces of a leaf, fold it into
two and further put another leaf so that the water leakage may be prevented.
Make envelopes with the prepared material. Fill the envelopes with meatpieces, a bit of salt, water, cooked onion and tomato, red pepper, curry powder,etc., and close the envelopes.
3. Make an elevated level on the pot bottom for filling with water, pour water,
place leaves, put envelopes on them and heat the pot on a fire for 1 to 2
hours to complete the process.
The main ingredient of the dish can be not only meat but also some othermaterials such as rice, groundnut source, etc. and it is consumed as anaccompaniment to the staple food. Normally one person consumes one envelope.
ղ Basket（Ekibbo, pl. Ebibbo）
The Ganda people fabricate and utilize
baskets from leaf axes of banana andEnjuru, Ganda name of Yoruba soft cane, aplant species of Marantaceae family,
Marantochloa
purpurea.
Everyhousehold possesses and uses their own
baskets when people prepare foods andPhoto III - 16 Basket making
place them. In the process of fabrication,leaf axes of Enjuru are fastened spirally
around the main nervures of banana.
㻌ճ㻌 Cushion (Enkata) and carpet (Ekirago, pl. Ebirago) In Uganda various goods are transported frequently by carrying them on humanhead. On that occasion, a cushion is often made from banana leaves and kept
between the burden and the head. In fabrication processes, the main nervure isbent roundly progressively and the leaf portion is inserted into inner side. Carpets(mats) are made by assembling dead banana leaf sheaths and tying many pieces ofthem to fine strings made from leaf sheaths.
When bathing, banana leaves are laid on the ground and they are specifically called
Oluleeba (pl. Endeeba).
մ Wrappings (Ettu, pl. Amatu）
 For wrapping goods, banana leaves are frequently used. When a leaf is rolled up
in a form of triangular cone to hold objects such as salt, it is called Olusogo.
յ Flavoring
Banana peels are used for flavoring. At present, a minority of rural households
use earthenware pots to store drinking water, and they perform fumigation of themfor disinfection about once a month. For that purpose, banana peels are used. Firstof all banana peels are dried by sunlight to make them black in color. Pieces of themand burning charcoal are put into the empty pot and the top is closed with a wooden
plate. A period of about 30 minutes to 1 hour is allowed to pass for fumigation. Afterthat the pot is rinsed lightly with water.
ն Use for animals
The peels produced in the food preparation are not only returned to fields as
residues but also fed to goats and cattle. In urban areas there are banana peel traders
who acquire free of charge the peels produced in markets or other establishments
and sell them to animal husbandry operators1).
Literature cited in Chapter III
1) Aked, J. 1993, Survey of the post-harvest activities and constraints of Ugandan
banana farmers, Natural Resources Institute, Kent, UK, 75pp.
2) Bibagambah, J. R. 1996, Marketing of smallholder crops in Uganda, Fountain
Publishers, Kampala, 154pp.
3) Davies, G. 1994, Banana persisting – Food and fibre crops in an Ugandanvillage in 1937 and 1994 –, INIBAP, Montpellier, 70pp.
4) Digges, P. 1993, Marketing of banana and banana products in Uganda: Results ofa rapid rural appraisal, Natural Resources Institute, Kent, 43pp.
5) Gold, C. S., E. B. Karamura, A. Kiggundu, F. Bagamba and A. M. K. Arera 1999,
Geographic shift in the Highland Cooking Banana (Musa spp. group AAA-EA)
production in Uganda, International Journal of Sustainable Development andWorld Ecology, 6: 45-59.
6) Gold, C. S., A. Kiggundu, A. M. K. Arera and D. Karamura 2002a, Selection
criteria of Musa cultivars through a farmer participatory appraisal survey in
Uganda, Experimental Agriculture, 38: 29-38.
7) Gold, C. S., A. Kiggundu, A. M. K. Arera and D. Karamura 2002b, Diversity,
distribution and farmer preference of Musa cultivars in Uganda, Experimental
Agriculture, 38: 39-50.
8) Karamura, E, E. Frison, D. A Karamura and S. Sharrock 1998, Banana
production systems in Eastern and Southern Africa, in Picq C., E. Foure, and E.
A. Frison (eds.), Bananas and food security, INIBAP, Montpellier, 401-412.
9) Komatsu, K. 1996, The Importance of Combination of Food Materials among theShifting Cultivators in Southeastern Cameroon. African studies, 48: 63-78. (inJapanese)10) Maruo, S. 2002, Banana agriculture and its intensiveness in the Great Lakes
Region in Africa, Technology and culture in agriculture, 25: 108-134. (inJapanese)11) Ministry of Agriculture, Animal Industry and Fisheries, Uganda 1992, Report on
Uganda national census of agriculture and livestock (1990-1991) Vol. III, Croparea, yield and production.
12) Mushiitwa, F. and E. T. Kamutunga 2002, Agricultural systems, in Mukiibi, J. K.
(ed.), Agriculture in Uganda, Vol. I, General information, Fountain Publishers,
Kampala, 220-230.
13) Ngambeki, D. S. 2006, Trends in marketing bananas in southern Uganda, A
paper presented for Satellite Workshop “The making of banana and enset areas in
Asia and Africa: Comparative studies of livelihood systems based on thebanana-family crops”, Kyoto Symposium of 21st Century COE Program“Crossing disciplinary boundaries and re-visioning area studies: perspectives
from Asia and Africa”, ASAFAS and CSEAS, Kyoto University.
14) Nkwiine, C., J. K. Tumuhairwe, C. Gumisiriza and F. K. Tumuhairwe 2003,
Agrodiversity of banana (Musa spp.) production in Bushwere, Mbarara district,
Uganda, in Kaihura, F. and M. Stocking (eds.), Agricultural biodiversity insmallholder farms of East Africa, United Nations University Press, 133-144.
15) Parsons, D. J. 1970, Agricultural systems, in Jameson, J. D. (ed.), Agriculture in
Uganda, 2nd ed., Oxford Univ. Press, London, 127-138.
16) Sato, Y. 2004, Lifeworld interwoven by people and bananas – Cultivation andutilization of bananas in Buganda, Central Uganda, Biostory (Journal of theSociety of Biosophia Studies), 2:106-121. (in Japanese)17) Sato, Y and M. Shigeta 2006, Ethnobotanical comparison of banana and enset
use in Africa, in Maruyama, J., L. Wang, T. Fujikura and M. Ito (eds.),
Proceedings of Kyoto Symposium of 21st Century COE Program “Crossing
Disciplinary boundaries and re-visioning area studies”, ASAFAS and CSEAS,
Kyoto University, Kyoto, 405-411.
18) M. Shigeta 2002, The essence of African vegeculture: Ethnobotanicalcomparison of banana and ensete , Asian and African area studies 2: 44-69. (inJapanese)
19) Shigeta, M. and Y. Sato 2006, Ethnobotanical comparison of banana and ensete
agricultural practices in Africa, in Maruyama, J., L. Wang, T. Fujikura and M. Ito(eds.), ibid, 413-420.
20) Yoshida, M. 2006, Issues of food supply to African cities – from fact-finding
survey in Uganda, in Takanashi, K. (ed.), Africa and Asia – Development andpoverty reduction, Keio University Press, Tokyo, 35-87. (in Japanese)Chapter IV Issues in banana cultivation technologies in
Uganda1. Pests in bananas and their control
The pests that pose the highest level of threats on bananas are nematodes
attacking roots and weevils invading and damaging mainly the basal parts ofpseudostem. In certain areas, coccids transmitting virus diseases are also considered
to cause problems, but they do not attract so much attention. 1) Nematodes
Nematodes are imposing very serious constraints on the global banana
production, and those which have been recognized so far include sweet potato
root-knot nematode (Meloidogyne incognita Kofoid et White), Java root-knot
nematode (M. javanica Treub.), pseudo-root-lesion nematode (Aphelenchus avenae
Bastian), southern root-lesion nematode (Pratylenchus coffee Zimmermann),lance nematode (Hoplolaimus spp.), and Ryukyu stunt nematode (Paratrophurusspp.). The occurrences of nematodes in Uganda have been causing the reduction of
banana productivity and reported since the 1980s, along with those of banana corm(root) borer weevils15）46). In the regions of Masaka and Rakai, a drastic reduction inbanana production occurred over a wide area as a results of the weakening of banana
plants and the toppling of pseudostems, which presents a very important problem
still now36）.
(1) Species of nematodes in Uganda
The nematodes inflicting damage on bananas in Uganda are not those of a single
species, but several species have been identified. All species cause the drastic
reduction in yield and profitability by attacking and damaging roots, andconsequently by weakening the plant body and reducing the cluster weight, andfurthermore not only by retarding the maturity but also by accelerating the topplingof pseudostems because roots are injured and loose vitality.
However, Ugandan farmers cannot recognize adequately the damage due tonematodes because they are difficult to see with the naked eye, and hence they
misunderstand that the injuries are due to some diseases or banana weevils, andconsequently fail to apply correct measures to control the damage14).
 As mentioned previously, as nematodes that attack banana roots and inflictdamage in Uganda, several species have been identified. From the investigation
carried out in the western, southwestern, central, and eastern regions, namely thecenter of banana production in Uganda, as the nematodes that have been found inbanana plants and confirmed as those causing damage, 8 species shown in Table IV– 1 have been identified20).
Three species, P. goodeyi, H. multicinctus and R. similis are spread over the mostextensive production area in Uganda and treated as the species calling for particularattention. The survey results have reported that the yield of banana is reduced byabout 7 % due to toppling, the principal symptom of nematode damage46).
However, considering that nematodes cause not only the direct damage by toppling
but also other troubles such as the loss of cluster weight and the insufficient storageof fruit substances, the overall magnitude of problems is much greater. Certain
investigations reported that when both R. similis and H. multicinctus are present, ayield loss of 51 % occurred56）.
Table IV-1  Species of nematodes in Uganda 56)
㻌 Scientific nameRadopholus similis (Cobb) Thorne
Pratylenchus goodeyi Sher & Allen
P．coffeae (Zimmermann) Filipjev, Schuurmans &StekhovenP．zeae Graham
Helicotylenchus multicinctus (Cobb) Golden
H．dihystera Colbran
H．pseudorobusts Golden
Meloidogyne spp

Popular name

Coffee root-lesion nematode,
Minami (southern) root-lesion nematodeCobb spiral nematode,
Minami spiral nematode(2) Ecology and life cycle of nematodes
All of three species, R. similis, P. goodeyi, H. multicinctus, parasitize the cortex ofroots to complete the life cycle. In general they invade roots from soil but in the caseof R. similis, it is said that they sometimes invade also rhizomes. They feed on theparenchyma cells of root and destroy the tissue. The infestation causes the formationof cavities in roots or rhizomes, retarding growth and creating troubles such as
toppling 6) 15).
The life cycles of these nematode species do not vary so much from one toanother. The eggs are laid in roots and hatch in 8 – 10 days. In the case of R. similis,
the juvenile stage at the temperature range of 24 – 32 °C lasts 10 – 13 days and thetotal life cycle is completed in 20 – 25 days. So far the life cycle of P. goodeyi has
not been investigated so thoroughly, but it is likely that it is completed in 45 -65 days
and hence lasts longer than in the cases of the other two species 1). In general, theduration of life cycle of nematodes is influenced by environmental conditions.
However, the details of life cycle under the conditions of banana cultivation andecological factors in Uganda have not yet been well identified.
(3) Symptoms of damage
Since nematodes feed on tissues, tunnels are formed in the root cortices, andnecroses are generated in surrounding tissues, which aggravates the damage.
Wounds turn reddish purple, and the necrosed damaged parts expand progressively.
Moreover, since the injuries caused by nematodes provide also invasion entries forpathogens, necrosed parts displaying purplish to reddish colors are generated, andultimately the roots die and rot off completely 6）47). The necrosis of root causes thenecroses of young roots and the tissue destruction, leading to disturbances in theabsorption of nutrients and water. The decline of plant growth and vitality retards
the enlargement of cluster and prolongs the duration needed for reaching maturity.
Furthermore, the damage leads to the degradation of nutrition of the plant as a whole
including the yellowing of pseudostem and leaves 34) 15).
Severe destruction of roots will lead to the toppling of pseudostem, but it is difficult
Photo IV-1 Lower sample shows a Photo IV-2 Young plant damagedby nematodes (lower sample)
root damaged by nematodes
Credit: K. Suzuki (ditto for the following)

to distinguish it from the toppling caused by banana weevils.
The selection of cultivars has to be made based on the analysis of investigations
conducted on the root injuries (the extent of necrosis and the rate of dead roots) andthe toppling caused by them as well as on the toppling of banana plants resulting
from other causes. Cultivars of ABB type like Kayinija are more vulnerable tosevere necroses of roots than those of AAA type, namely East African Highland
bananas. However, the latter cultivars tend to be more liable to topple than theformer. In general, cultivars of East African Highland bananas, for example,
Mbwazirume and Nakitembe, are more vulnerable to nematode injuries thancultivars like Kyinja and Bogoya (AAA). The toppling tends to take place in areas at
a higher altitude (1400 – 1900 m) than those at a lower altitude (1000 - 1350 m) 46).
(4) Distribution of nematodes
Among the 8 nematode species distributed in the investigated areas in Uganda, P.
goodeyi and H. Multicinctus have been identified respectively at 96 % and 83 % of
the investigated locations, and species of R. similis and Meloidogyne have beenfound at 53 % of them. Other 4 species are distributed in limited localities and foundonly seldom 20).
P. goodeyi that causes disturbances in banana is the most widespread species inUganda and East African Highlands. This species has become one of the principal
pests also in Canary Islands, Cameroon, and Ethiopia. It occurs also in Uganda andis found in both the lowlands and the highlands (1400 m – 1800 m) but more
frequently in the former than in the latter. In Uganda spiral nematodes, H.
multicinctus, occur generally in the areas at a lower elevation and the damage is also
very significant. Those species found in the tropics and the subtropics are also foundin Uganda where and when R. similis is found. The nematode boring holes in roots,
R. similes, was first found in Fiji, but it has recently been observed universally inother countries as well where bananas are grown such as Canary Islands, Egypt, andTaiwan. The reason for such a widespread distribution could be attributed to thedispersion through the potting compost when seedlings are exported.
The altitude influences greatly the nematode distribution and the principal factor
for it is considered to be the temperature. According to a survey in Uganda in 1993,
R. similis and species of Meloidogyne are found in the areas below the altitude of
1400 m, and only P. goodeyi is found in the highlands at an elevation above 1600 m.
H. multicinctus is observed at an elevation of up to 1600 m. However, the majorityof species are found more often in areas at an elevation of 1200 – 1300 m. The
factors that influence the occurrence and the distribution of nematodes are
considered to be the population size of nematodes, cultivation systems, andcharacteristics of banana cultivars 20).
(5) Strategies to control nematodes
When endoparasitic nematodes occur in a banana plant that is a perennial crop, it
becomes difficult to control them. Although various methods for the treatment ofnematodes have been tried, their effectiveness is influenced by different
environmental conditions and the fundamental state of plant, and hence varies
among different spots within a farm and among different farms.
䐟 Control through cultural practices
The following sections describe some of the control methods through culturalpractices that have been tried and proved to be effective. They are being practiced
on an experimental basis in Uganda.
a) Rotational cropping system
A rotational cropping system is considered to be able to starve nematodes bycultivating temporarily other crop species that the nematodes cannot parasitize. The
subsequent banana cultivation can be started with the presence of few parasitic
nematodes. This method is the approach that is adopted often in replanting banana
plants. For example, when banana productivity has declined and the elimination of
banana plants from a field becomes necessary, farmers in Central Uganda
implement the practice in which they dig out completely the roots of plants in thefield and newly plant the seedlings of other crop species free from the infestation ofnematodes. The populations of nematodes causing damage to banana were reducedin the successive phase of cropping after the root crops such as sweet potato andcassava were cultivated as the plants free from the infestation of nematodes.
Concerning the approach through this principle, trials are being carried out for thedetermination of the duration of rotational cropping under different field conditions.
Moreover, the search for applicable crop species
other than cassava and sweet potato is going on,
and it has been ascertained that this method
enables the reduction of parasitic nematodes.
b) Introduction of uninfected plants
The expansion of nematode distribution fromone area to another occurs also through the
movement of plants infected with nematodes.
This mode of dissemination can be prevented
by the use of uninfected plants (nematode-freeplants) that have been raised from the initialplants produced in the fields where noPhoto IV-3 
Nematode-free plant derived
by meristem culturenematode damage is observed, or by the use of plants derived through the techniqueof tissue culture, an application of biotechnology. As a feasible method on the
farmers’ level, the control procedures in which suckers are exposed to sunlight ortreated with chemicals can reduce the incidence of nematode damage.
  c) Soil amelioration and utilization of nematoderepellent plants
It is known that the length of productive period
is longer in those banana plants growing in thehorticultural lands that are managed with care byweeding and applying fertilizers, or in the homegardens where the soil is improved by applying
domestic wastes. This fact has been verified by thecultivation that has endured for long years with theHighland bananas in Uganda and with thebananas in West Africa.

It is generally

believed that the amelioration of soil reduces the

Photo IV-4 Example ofnematode repellent plant,
Crotalaria

injurious effect of nematodes, enhances thebanana growth, and leads to the production oflarge and heavy fruit clusters.
Although the effect may vary depending on
nematode species, a certain number of plants are
known to repel nematodes. As representative
species of such plants, there are crotalarias(rattlepods, Crotalaria spp.), marigolds (Tagetesspp.), and shrub sunflower or tree marigold(Tithonia diversifolia A. Gray). It is also importantto reduce the nematode population by utilizingthese plants, by growing them among bananaPhoto IV-5 Example ofnematode repellent plant,
Marigoldplants as mulching materials or growing them as antecedent crops before opening a
new banana orchard.
Tale IV-2 Examples of nematode repellent plants
Scientific name

Japanese name Popular name

Crotalaria spp.

Tanuki-mame

Crotalaria, rattle pods

Tagetes spp.

Manju-giku

African marigold

Tithonia diversifolia A.GRAY

Nitobe-giku

Shrub sunflower, Tree marigoldd) Use of resistant varieties
Studies on the nematode resistance are being conducted for cultivars of East
African Highland bananas. At the moment no variety has been identified as having
resistance to nematode. However, in the clone of a diploid of Pisang Jari Buaya, theresistance to R. similis has been reported. The nematode resistant clone material isbeing applied in the plant breeding program to develop resistant varieties against P.
goodeyi and H. Multicinctus. The development of banana varieties resistant or
tolerant to pests is also one of the objectives of the banana propagation project in
Uganda.
䐠 Chemical control
It is important to select nematocidal agents that show rapid and efficient effectagainst nematodes. The effect of nematocides for the yield increase wasrecognized when they were applied to heavily infested fields. However, thetreatment with nematocides on the field where the banana cultivation is actually
going on is not appropriate. Requirements for chemical substances and for thetreatment of them differ depending on the type of farming management, and they
are generally not feasible economically unless the farming management in questionis that of a large scale commercial cultivation. Furthermore, the nematocides
present hazards to humans and environment and are also likely to inflict harmfuleffects on many beneficial organisms serving as natural enemies. Consequently, atpresent non-chemical cultural management methods are being promoted as themeasures to control nematodes, in order to benefit poor farmers with few
opportunities for earning income, and to enable them to practice the type of
agriculture that is sustainable and friendly to environment.
2) Banana weevils(1) Banana weevil and its damage
 A beetle that feeds on banana, the banana corm (root) borer weevil, Cosmopolites
sordidus Germar (Curculionidae), (hereafter referred to as banana weevil) is themost destructive pest in bananas. In Uganda also the banana weevils was known
since early and it was mentioned also in some countries that imported banana
varieties in the 1900s. By the late 1950s, it was distributed all over the country
except for Fort Portal and the surrounding areas of West Nile 29) 61) 11) 27) 16) 13).
However, although in general it is not considered as an important pest in the large
scale farms growing Cavendish banana, it has a very important economic
significance for large scale farms growing East African Highland bananas. In a
study conducted in Kawanda to evaluate the extent of damage due to the pest on
Atwalira, an East African Highland banana cultivar, it was revealed that the damage
increased from 10 % to 48 % 33). In much older orchards, the banana plants sustained
a much higher level of damage due to the weevil, and pseudostems broke, whichcaused serious losses (50 % to 100 %) and shortened the longevity of orchards 35) 14).
 The cultivars of East African Highland banana (AAA) and cooking banana(AAB) are more liable to severe attacks of the banana weevil than the cultivars forbrewing beer such as Kisubi (AB) and Kayinja (ABB). However, it is evident that
Bogoya and Gros Michel (AAA) are less liable to the attack and the weevil cannot
easily invade into their rhizomes. The gravity of the weevil damage causes a very
heavy impact on the management of banana farms. For Ugandan farmers with few
economic resource plants, the occurrence of the banana weevil is a serious problem.

(2) Ecology and lifecycle
According to a study by Traore et al. (1993) 51), females of the weevil lay eggs at
the basal part of rhizome or in the cavities bored in pseudostems. Larvae hatch in 5
to 8 days, bore tunnels in the parenchyma of rhizome, feed on surrounding tissues
and grow. The development of growing stages varies depending on the climate of
the region and the season. Larvae spend 5 – 10 days in banana tissues, and anotherperiod of more than 4 – 7 days in the tissues until the pupation turns their skinalmost black and hardened. It has been identified that the complete life cycle in
Uganda takes about 53 – 72 days 3). In most of other parts of the world cases ofshorter duration of life cycle have been recorded and it takes 30 – 50 days.
Moreover, the cases of longer lifecycle lasting 200 – 220 days also have beenreported 12).

Photo IV-6 Larva of banana weevil

Photo IV-7 Rhizome damaged
by weevils

Adult Weevils crawl out to the ground surface and spend there the rest of theirlife. The size of an adult weevil is about 12.5 mm long and 4mm wide in a larger
one. Their life habit is nocturnal and they are most active in darkness. They
particularly prefer to live in high humidity environment, and it is known that theadult weevils can survive for a long period without feeding. In a case identified inbanana orchards in Uganda, it is known that they have survived as long as 4 years.
Adult weevils are very sensitive to soil humidity and when the dry state ismaintained, they inevitably die very quickly.
(3) Symptoms of attack and damage
According to Gowen (1995) 16), the damage due to the banana weevil results
essentially from feeding activities of larvae that bore tunnels in rhizomes andpseudostems and feed on surrounding tissues. Grown-up larvae bore holes of about
15 mm in diameter, and feed on tissues to extend the holes upward for a distance ofas far as 60 – 100 cm. As a consequence of this, the absorption and the translocationof nutrients and water by banana plants are disturbed, the nutrition is degraded, andthe growth is weakened. Furthermore infested banana plants become susceptible tothe attacks of pathogenic microorganisms, fungi and bacteria, which grow in thetunnels bored by the weevils. Particularly the invasion of the weevils in young
banana seedlings not only interrupt the plant growth and retard fruiting, but also
sometimes cause the death of the plants. Generally such a situation arises in thecase where the weevil eggs have already been laid in suckers prepared fortransplanting or the suckers have been already contaminated with larvae having
invaded them or in the case where uninfected suckers are planted in contaminatedfields. Severely damaged banana plants produce small fruit clusters and suffer fromthe lowered capacity for resisting droughts and strong winds. Sometimes the plants
bearing large fruit clusters break spontaneously.
(4) Temperature and distribution
The place of origin of the banana weevil is supposed to be Asia, but the insect has
already spread to major banana producing countries in the world. According to a
recent survey conducted in Uganda, the insect is observed in all areas at an altitude
below 1700 m. However, it has not been found in Kabele (1760 m) and Kapchorwa(1830 m). The absence of the insect in regions of higher altitude can be attributed to
the factor that the insect cannot live in such areas because the temperature is not highenough to allow the growth of larvae and the survival of adult weevils. However, theannual mean temperature in Kabele is 17.7䉝 and exceeds the lower value ofthreshold temperature of 12䉝 that has been established by Traore et al.(1993) as thelower limit of the temperature range for the weevil survival. The absence of theweevil in Kabele could be explained by the possible situation in which the lowest
temperature occurring in a certain season may be inhibiting the development of eggs
and the egg laying of the weevil 51).
(5) Control techniques
Currently no resistant variety immune to damage has been identified. Hence it isdifficult for Ugandan farmers to choose cultivars as a means to suppress the damage.
Since the chemical control entails the problem of risks to humans andenvironment, it can not readily be recommended to farmers. Under thesecircumstances, it is known that cultural approaches and biological control are
important as well as effective.
䐟 Control through cultural practices
 As methods for controlling banana weevils through cultural practices, various
traditional practices described in the following are applied.
a) Introduction of pest-free plants
By planting healthy plants, it is possible to prevent the spread of weevils to newareas through the intermediary of plants. The plants obtained from the field without
occurrences of weevils are more often healthy ones. In the case of plants that werecollected from the field where the occurrences of weevils have been observed, it isneeded to control the weevils by treating them: the surfaces of rhizomes are scraped
off to remove eggs and larvae living there and immersed in the solution of arecommended insecticide to kill larvae embedded in subsurface tissues. Since plants
propagated by tissue culture are generally free from weevils, such materials should
be used, if they are available. Some farmers practice the immersion of rhizome inwater for 24 – 48 hours, irrespective of the presence or absence of insecticide. But
the effectiveness of this practice has not been determined. It has been recognized thatthe treatment with heated water also is not an effective control measure when larvae
have penetrated deeply into the rhizome. In general, by using healthy rhizomes, theincidence of weevil infestation in earlier phases after transplanting can be reduced,
but this method cannot be the measure to control the invasion and the attack comingfrom neighboring fields. However, since this method can prolong the periodrequired for the growth of weevil population, it serves for the prolongation of theperiod allowing the cultivation.
b) Disposal of residues after harvesting
It is possible to reduce the habitats and the breeding environment of weevils by
shredding and dispersing pseudostems and rhizomes after the harvest of fruits,
because the treatment will accelerate the process of drying. Moreover, the treatment
leads to the exposure of eggs and larvae of the weevils to aridity to kill them.
Farmers conventionally believe that the treatment to cover remaining stumps withsoil deprives the weevils of their living environment. However, because the weevils
can reportedly bore an underground hole with a depth of up to 60 cm to lay eggs, themethod cannot be said to be an appropriate measure. Nevertheless, while theseconventional procedures can be considered as cost-effective control methods,
detailed studies on them have not yet been conducted.

Photo IV-8 Residues are shredded Photo IV-9 Residues are untreatedand spreadc) Trapping and kill adult weevils
The capture of adult weevils by traps is one of the oldest methods for controllingweevils. Two types of traps are used: one using pseudostems and the other using
discs of stump. The trap of pseudostems is made by cutting longitudinally a piece ofpseudostem into two halves which are placed on the ground with the section facing
the ground. On the other hand, the trap of stump discs is made by cutting
transversely a stump to prepare a piece of 15-25 cm in length, which is placed on topof the stump and covered with leaf sheaths and leaves. Later the weevils that haveflocked to these traps are collected and killed.
d) Appropriate environment management
It is important to take various measures to maintain the appropriate environmental
conditions for the growth of banana, such as weeding, elimination of surplus
suckers, removal of dead leaves, fertilizer application, and mulching. These
measures contribute to the removal of habitats of adult weevils and the growth ofbanana plants tolerant to weevils. It has been noted that in the orchards under poor
management care, weevils vigorously invade banana plants and cause damage, but
in those under good management care and hence with good banana growth, the levelof insect damage is low 33）.

䐠 Chemical control
Until the 1970s, organochlorine compounds such as dieldrin, DDT, and Aldrin
were permitted as applicable insecticides. However, after that organophosphorus
pesticides and carbamate pesticides with less residue-prone properties have been inuse. Currently the most economically used chemicals include carbofuran (Furadan),primiphosthyl (Primicide), dursban, etc. Normally, liquid or granular forms ofpesticides are applied to the basal part of plants by using simple apparatus. The
application on the traps made from pseudostems or stump disks is also effective forkilling weevils that have been attracted to the traps. Those farmers who can afford touse these chemicals are limited in number, because of the scarcity of supply andexpensive prices and also the problem of possible hazards to health andenvironment. The guidance for the farmers who use pesticides is also essential. The
utilization of pesticides is beneficial if the methods that are effective and cause no
negative impact on environment can be identified. It can be also counted on as aneffective method to integrate chemical control into other control measures or
biological control.
䐡 Biological control
In an attempt to control weevils, a species of predatory insect in the date palm
cultivation was introduced in 1934. Histerid beetle（Plaesius javanus Erichs）was
imported from Java and released in Kibibi on the Lake Victoria, etc. From thesurveys in 1937 and 1945, it was confirmed that the natural enemy had settle d in
Uganda. It is likely that the exploration in banana growing areas within the country
will enable the finding of more appropriate natural enemies.
 Studies on pathogenic filamentous fungi attacking banana weevils, Beauveria
bassiana (Balsamo) Vuillemin and Metarhizium anisolpliae（Metchnikoff）Sorokin,were started in 1991. B. bassiana is more promising between the two, and there is apossibility that it can be used in combination with other methods for controlling theweevil. Since it was confirmed that in the fields inoculated with B. bassiana theoccurrence of the weevil was remarkably reduced, studies on these fungi in farmers’
fields are ongoing 26).
3) Other pests
It has been identified that several
insect species including Poecilocarda(Tettigoniella) mitrata Gerst, Latoia
viridissima Holl (L. satura Karsch),Temnoschoita nigroplagiata, T. erudita,
T. basipennis, etc, inflict damage on
bananas. However, in Uganda these

Table IV-3 Other pests 56)
Scientific name
Poecilocarda (Tettigoniella) mitrata Gerst
Latoia Viridissima Holl
Temnoschoita nigroplagiata Qued
T. erudita Duviv
T. basipennis Duviv

insect species are not recognized as posing problems of economic significance.
Temnoschoita, a beetle, lives generally in rotten tissues. It has been ascertained thatthe pests that are important in economic significance in Uganda are nematodes andweevils. It is pointed out that the damage and the yield reduction caused by these
two types of pests are possible to increase seriously to the extent that the banana fieldshall be practically destroyed. Under these circumstances, the realization of effective
and definite control has been recognized in the orchards where farmers practiced thestrategy of the integrated pest management (IPM) that recommends to plant
pest-free plants to pest-free fields.
         

2. Diseases of banana
Some of the diseases occurring to dessert bananas and cooking bananas in
Uganda are caused by a number of important pathogenic microorganisms including
fungi, viruses, and bacteria, etc. The diseases are classified into a couple of groups ofsymptoms including that of the occurrence of spots on leaves which includes “Black
sigatoka”, “Yellow sigatoka” and “Mottle leaf ”, and that of the occurrence ofwilting and withering of the total plant which includes “Panama disease” (Fusariumwilt), “Matoke wilt” and Banana bacteria wilt (BBW) caused by a bacterial
pathogen. Moreover, as a virus disease which inflicts heavy damage, there is“Banana streak virus” 52).
㻌
Table IV-4 Diseases of bananas in Uganda 56)
Scientific nameMycosphaerella fijensis Morelet
M.㻌 musicola Leach
Periconiella sapientumicola Siboe
Fusarium oxysporum Schlect. f.sp.cubense(E.F. Smith) Snyd. and Hans
Fusarium oxysporum f.sp. cubense(indeterminate)
Xanthomonas campestris pv. musaceareum

English nameBlack sigatoka
Yellow sigatoka
Leaf speckle
Fusarium wilt, Maloke wilt, Panama wilt
Matoke wilt
BBW: Banana bacteria Wiltshire
Banana streak virus (BSV)               1) Diseases causing leaf spots on banana
In general leaf spots in banana occur in the mixed presence of different pathogens
causing black sigatoka (Mycosphaerella fijensis Morelet), yellow sigatoka (M.
musicola Leach), leaf speckle (Periconiella sapientumicola Siboe), etc. The twosigatoka diseases, black and yellow, are distinctly different from the leaf speckle
disease, but the difference between black sigatoka and yellow sigatoka is sometimes
difficult to distinguish in the field. These three diseases sometimes occur on thesame leaf, but the temperature (altitude) is one of the limiting factors for the blacksigatoka’s occurrence. In Uganda the black sigatoka was reported first in 1989, buton the global level the disease has become one of the major constraints in the banana
production 54). On the other hand, yellow sigatoka and leaf speckle that wereidentified in Uganda first in 1938 were supposed to be of minor importance, but it
was likely that they were underestimated at that time. Complex leaf spot diseases
occurring on the same leaf that is infected with the black sigatoka are economicallyimportant. The result of investigation conducted on a cultivar of Highland banana,
Mbwazimme, in Kwanda revealed that the yield was reduced by 37 % due to thediseases causing leaf spots. The loss resulted mainly from the insufficient filling offruits due to disturbances in leaves occurring before the completion of fruit ripening
55).
(1) Symptoms and distribution of black sigatoka and yellow sigatoka
The black sigatoka disease is characterized by the appearance of necrotic infectedparts in the form of oblong ellipse along leaf veins. The symptom develops in thefollowing steps. At first fine yellow-greenish spots are visible, and then the spots
become brown continuous streaks on the obverse side of a leaf which further
develop to yellowish green ones as a whole. Moreover the continuous streaks
expand to become spots with poorly defined margins in color of brown or rust-like
red. After that the spots develop in the central portion the flecks with distinct
contours which look like haloes in a color ranging from brown to yellowish tinge,
and the central portion turns to the state inundated with water and becomes coloredin a darker brown. Finally depressed central portion turns gray, with surrounding
areas turning dark brown or with yellow surrounding areas enclosed by a blackborderline and surrounded by the healthy green portion of the leaf, of which, if thedisease develop intensely, the necrotic tissues get united rapidly and expand tooccupy a wider area 48).
The symptom of yellow sigatoka also develops in the manner similar to the caseof black sigatoka. The chief difference between the two sigatoka diseases concerns
the color of streaks of infected parts at an earlier phase of symptom development,
namely, in contrast to the case of black sigatoka with black streaks of spots, in theyellow sigatoka the color is yellow. However, as the tissues necrotize progressively,
it becomes difficult to distinguish two diseases only by the symptoms.
(2) Distribution of diseases causing leaf spots in Uganda According to the results of surveys conducted in 1993 at 24 localities growing
bananas in Uganda, the black sigatoka was not found at localities where the altitude
exceeded 1450 m and the mean minimum temperature was lower than 15 °C.
However, the incidence of 100 % of the black sigatoka was observed in Highland
cultivars growing in the same localities.
Meanwhile, regarding the incidence of yellow sigatoka, although it was low at a
rate of 5 – 10 % at an altitude higher than 1450 m, the disease was observed at all
the investigated localities. Careful studies revealed that the incidence of yellow
sigatoka at a rate of 5 – 10 % was observed at 5 localities where the Highland
cultivars, Entundu, Mbwazirume, and Nakitembe, were cultivated. The incidence ofyellow sigatoka infection is said to be higher with Kayinja (72 %) and Bogoya(19%) than with Highland bananas. However, while at a higher altitude the rate of
infection was lower with Bogoya and Highland bananas, a higher rate was observed
there with Kabale and Kayinja. The occurrence of leaf spots with Highland bananas
was observed at the rate of 100 % at all the investigated localities, and cooking
bananas also expressed the symptoms in a similar manner. However otherintroduced cultivars demonstrated the resistance against the disease 52).
(3) Symptoms of leaf speckle
The disease becomes visible 3 – 4 weeks after a leaf expands with a symptom of
slender bronze spots like traces drawn with a pencil. The spots further enlarge andthe leaf turns blackish green. As the growth of leaf advances the spots turns fromorange to yellow, and then brown, and ultimately necrotize. The necrosis starts frommarginal parts of old leaves.
(4) Control methods
ձ Cultural control
Studies on appropriate cultivation in the context of cultural control are ongoing. It
has been recognized that the improvement of nutritional status of banana plants
enables reduction of the impact due to diseases causing leaf spots. It is important topromote the generation of well developed leaf tissues capable of enhancing
photosynthesis 52). The utilization of fungicides is an effective method but cannot be
said to be an appropriate solution for small holders who constitute the core of banana
production in Uganda.
ղ Utilization of resistant varieties
In general the least costly and the most effective means to control plant diseases isthe cultivation of resistant varieties. Resistant Highland bananas are immune todiseases. Meanwhile resistant cultivars imported from abroad also are being
cultivated. It is highly likely that some of those imported cultivars (for example,
FHIA01, FHIA17, and FHIA23) can be used as cooking bananas.
2) Fusarium wilt (Panama disease)
It was reported first in 1952 that Panama disease (Fusarium wilt) was caused by
Fusarium oxysporum Schlect. f.sp.cubense (E.F.Smith) Snyd. and Hans (FOC) in
the actual fields of banana cultivation in Uganda 23). The symptoms of wilt werereported for Highland bananas and dessert banana cultivars imported from abroad in
1955, and the similar symptoms were also observed in the survey conducted in1995
in the southwestern part of Uganda at an altitude of 1300 m 53). Recent studies haverevealed that the Fusarium expresses pathogenicity in 4 dessert banana cultivars
grown in Uganda, namely, Gros Michel, Snkari-Ndizi, Kisubi, and Kayinja, butdoes not infect Highland bananas. Regarding the pathogen causing Matoke wilt, it
has not yet been identified and the search is ongoing.
(1) Symptoms and distribution of Fusarium wilt
Fusarium wilt known as Panama disease is the most destructive disease for
introduced banana cultivars in Uganda 7). The pathogen lives in soil and can survive
without the presence of host tissues such as those of banana, making it difficult tocontrol the disease through rotational cropping. The characteristic of the pathogen
is the fact that it does not express the disease in other plants than species of Musaand Heliconia in the same family of Musaceae. This disease spreads also by theintermediary of contaminated soil stuck on infected banana young plants, farming
tools, shoes, etc. Pathogens invade through injured lateral roots and are absorbed andtranslocated upward along with the current of evapotranspiration 4).
The translocation of spores through a vascular bundle is obstructed due to thegeneration of tylose and gel within tissues. However, in tissues of susceptible banana
plants, the pathogen can pass through this defense line by the production ofhydrolytic enzymes and substances inhibiting the generation of substances for
obstructing the translocation. This situation further makes the banana plantsusceptible to invasion and turns it yellow and wilted. The most remarkable external
symptom of wilt is the expression of drooping of leaves. However the most definite
symptoms of the Fusarium are the appearance of purplish brown color in the crosssections of rhizome and pseudostem, and the fading of color of vascular bundles.
Three strains of pathogens (Strains 1, 2, and 4) are known to infect dessert
bananas. While Strain 4 is found mainly in the cooler subtropics, and Strains 1 and 2
are found widespread in all areas where bananas are cultivated, the latter 2 strains
occur in a different way from one another. In Uganda, both of Strains 1 and 2 areobserved in areas where Gros Michel and Bluggoe are grown, and Gros Michel isfound infected with Strain 1 while Bluggoe is not infected with Strain 1. It has been
ascertained that Strain 1 of FOC infects 4 cultivars in Uganda, i.e., Kayinja (Pisang
awak-ABB), Bogoya (Gros Michel - AAA), Kisubi and Sukari-Ndizi (AB). The
prevalence of Strain 1 has been confirmed in all regions of Uganda particularly inrecently introduced cultivars that are mainly those used for juice production and thedessert banana varieties grown for export purposes.
(2) Control techniquesձ Introduction of resistant varieties
The cultivation of resistant varieties is the most cost-effective method forcontrolling diseases. Those bananas and cultivars such as Highland bananas,
plantains, Cavendish, FHIA01, FHIA17, and FHIA23 that have been identified as
resistant varieties in a comparative investigation conducted on an identical location
can be used as cultivars to replace the highly susceptible varieties of dessert bananasuch as Bogoya and Sukari-Ndizi.
ղ Introduction of uninfected young plants to disease-free fields
In the case of susceptible cultivar like Sukari-Ndizi, it is important to cultivate
uninfected plants in an unpolluted field. Pathogen-free plants are already available
because the tissue culture has enabled the mass production of such plants, and hence
this strategy of planting them to unpolluted fields is practicable currently. So far no
remedial method to cure the infected plants has been known.
3) Matoke wilt
(1) Symptoms and distribution of matoke wilt
In highlands at an altitude higher than 1300 m in the southwestern Uganda, it has
been ascertained that Highland bananas wither due to another wilt disease, i.e.,
matoke wilt. The wilt was identified first in 1995 and attributed to the infection by
Fusarium oxysporum f.s cubense. However, recent studies reportedly indicate that
this Fusarium species is possibly not the pathogen of the wilt. The occurrence ofmatoke wilt is limited to the banana plants grown in home gardens and arounddumps and fenced plots for animals. Even in the case where a rhizome obtained
from an infected plant is transplanted to an unpolluted field, it is said that healthy
fruit clusters and healthy suckers are produced. In the banana plants infected withmatoke wilt the cluster yield is reduced by 78 %. Such a loss creates a problem
when farmers expect to achieve high productivity in the fields nearer to the houses
with a high content of organic matter. It can be assumed that the disease affects all
cultivars universally30).
(2) Control measures
In order to restrain the impact on uninfected plants, certain farmers adopt
measures to try to maintain the cleanliness, remove infected plants, and putrefy wellthe household wastes before applying them to fields.
4) Banana streak virus, BSV
In Uganda, while other virus diseases of banana are not important, the banana
streak virus has become an important disease. The virus causing the banana streakvirus disease was isolated first in 1986. Since then it has been reported also in India,
Morocco, Nigeria, Latin America, Rwanda, Jordan, Tanzania, China, Mauritius,South Africa, Madagascar, Ecuador, and Uganda18) 55). BSV presents an orderly
bacilliform shape. It belongs to the group of badnavirus containing DNA in theform of round double helix. The badnavirus tends to cause a high incidence ofmutation during the multiplication phase. Banana streak virus disease not only is
liable to mutate biologically, serologically, and genetically, but also develops a wide
range of symptoms and causes damage that could range from a light loss tosometimes a very heavy loss.
(1) Symptoms of BSV
The symptoms of an early phase of BSV that are visible on leaves resemble
closely those of CMV (cucumber mosaic virus). First they are visible as yellowlinear mosaic spots. The linear necroses on leaves that appear afterward differ fromthose of CMV. In the infected plants the growth slows down and the plant vigor islost. Moreover, it becomes difficult to develop flowers, fruit clusters become
smaller, and fingers get lean and distorted. The blighting of top portion due tonecroses of internal parts of pseudostem resembles closely to the symptoms of BSV
that are observed also in Rwanda. Periodical appearances of symptoms are thecharacteristics of banana plants infected with BSV. The symptoms do notnecessarily appear continuously on all the leaves that emerge, but sometimes nosymptom appears on a new leaf once in a few months, or a leaf emerges that
expresses only a light symptom. Consequently, at the stage of quarantine, it isnecessary to retain seedlings for at least 9 months for surveillance. If that procedure
is omitted, the apparent resemblance to the symptoms of CMV may cause a case of
misjudgment, due to the periodical appearance of symptoms of BSV 18).
(2) Transmission of BSV
 BSV spread mainly through vegetative propagation. It has been ascertained that
all the suckers collected from an infected parent plant develop BSV without fail.
The phenomenon in which, while two plants were planted separately and one had
been healthy before planting, the symptoms appeared in both of them also
explains why this disease is said to be able to spread possibly through airborne
infection. Meanwhile, it is conceivable that BSV can spread by the intermediary of
mealy bugs of citruses (Planococcus citri), sugarcane (Saccharicoccus sacchari),and, though indefinite, mealy bugs of banana. The transmission through themanipulation of tools for pruning suckers and leaves or through soil is not thinkable.
(3) Control of BSV
An important measure to suppress the spread of BSV and other virus diseases
consists of the practice to eliminate infected plants and not to use them. It is possible
to control the virus by means of digging up all the plants infected with BSV anddrying them. This means is effective because it enables not only the reduction of theincidence of disease but also the elimination of intermediate hosts and vectors at thesame time. It is said that certain farmers who own farm fields infected with BSV are
often reluctant to remove banana plants, in spite of the fact that the infection leads tothe total loss of production 55).
As another measure, it is important to use only ascertained uninfected seedlings.
To start with, it is needed to plant a new field with suckers and rhizomes obtained
from the fields that have not been infected with BSV. Meanwhile, nowadays theuninfected seedlings generated through tissue culture techniques are available
commercially and can be used as materials for establishing banana orchards. By
adopting these effective measures, long term continuous banana production isassured unless the field is infected again.
 In the context of acquisition of uninfected seedling, in the case of virus diseases
such as BSV, it is important to establish an effective verification system byquarantine, isolation and inspection, and to exclude the pathogens from production
areas by making full use of the technologies supporting the system. Moreover, as
regards the control of virus diseases, it is essential to establish the guidelines for thequarantine to be applied to cases of international shipping or introduction of cultured
cells, after thorough inspection of clone materials.
5) Banana bacterial wilt
This disease is said to be caused by the pathogens of banana bacterial wilt (BBW,
Xanthomonas campestris pv. musaceareum) and is currently supposed to be one of
the most important diseases in banana. The strong measures are being promoted at
the level of farmers, and the extension centers in banana growing areas display
posters urging producers to take control measures against the BBW. It is known thatthe BBW is caused by the same pathogen that causes a disease in ensete banana
cultivated in Ethiopia.
This disease was detected at Mukono near Kampala in 2001 and afterward foundwidely in other areas as well. At first leaves turn yellow, and petioles break anddroop. The cross section of leaf sheath reveals blocked vascular bundles andbacterial secretions exude from the section in 5 – 10 minutes after cutting. It is also
likely that male flowers born on the tip of a mature and withered cluster bloom, andthe bacteria are transmitted by activities of insects visiting them.
 Since the transmission of diseases takes place most likely through the infected
plants, it is important to practice various measures as follows: never use the suckers
obtained from infected orchards; eliminate
and dispose of male inflorescences, because it
possibly happens that insects like honey beestransmit the disease from bloomed male
flowers; and at the same time disinfect thetools like knife and hoe that have been usedin the treatment of plants by an appropriate
means such as by exposing them to an open
fire. Moreover, farmers are recommended toobserve the practices such as the eliminationof infected plants by cutting and digging themup together with rhizomes, and piling them Photo IV-10 Placard showing
up to accelerate the putrefaction.
transmission paths of BBW
6) Other diseases
As regards banana diseases occurring in Uganda, it has been reported that two
pathogens, Marasmius semiustus Berk & Curt and Armillaria mellea (Vahl ex Fr.)
Kununer, cause rot in the basal part of pseudostem and in rhizomes. Moreover, fruit
fingers sustain disturbances caused by those pathogens including Verticillium
theobromae (Turc) Mason & Hughes, Colletotrichum musae (Berk. & Curt.) Von
Arx (anthracnose of bananas), Fusarium monihforme Sheldon, Deightoniella
torulosa (Sny）Ellis (Leakey 1970). The pathogens causing the expression ofsymptoms on leaves include Periconiella sapientumicolla Siboe (Cladosporium leaf
speckle), Drechslera spp. (eye spot), Cordana musae (Zimm) Hohn (Cordana leafspot), D. torulosa, Septoria spp. and Chloridium musae Stahel. These pathogenscause disturbances on Highland bananas, but the symptoms are considered to be notserious.
Table IV-5 Other diseases occurring on banana plants 56)
Scientific name
Marasmius semiustus Berk & Curt
Armillaria mellea(Vahl ex Fr.)Kununer
Verticillium theobromae (Turc) Mason & Hughes
Colletotrichum musae (Berk. & Curt.)Von ArxFusarium monihforme Sheldon
Deightoniella torulosa (Sny) Ellis
Periconiella sapientumicolla Siboe
Drechslera spp.
D. torulosa
Cordana musae (Zimm) Hohn
Septoria spp.
Chloridium musae Stahel

English name

Anthracnose of bananas

Cladosporium leaf speckle
Eye spot
Cordana leaf spot                 

3. Soil fertility management
1) Suitable soil conditions for banana cultivation
Banana grows well on the soil with good drainage and rich in humus, and thecultivation on the soil with poor drainage is not appropriate. Otherwise banana ischaracteristically able to adapt itself to a wide range of soil conditions. With respect
to soil pH, strongly acidic soil is not suitable for banana growth. And banana canmaintain yield levels on the soil rich in various mineral compounds. The mostsuitable soil conditions for banana cultivation can be defined as those with pH
ranging from 5.6 to 7.5 and content level of salts at less than 500 mg/kg 49). Besides,
it is needed to apply appropriate doses of potassium (K), magnesium (Mg), calcium(Ca), and phosphorus (P).
2) Management of soil fertility and fertilization
Banana plants absorb lots of nutrients from soil. In order to harvest 40 tons ofbananas from 1 hectare of land, it is said that on average 250 kg of N, 26 kg of P,
830 kg of K, 105 kg of Mg, and 15 kg of S are absorbed from soil. According to
Twyford and Walmsley (1974), some reports indicate that for every 40 tons ofharvested bananas, 2000 kg of K are to be absorbed from soil 21) 57). Potassium is an
essential element for the growth of banana and supposed to have the effects forenhancing the differentiation of floral buds, accelerating the ripening of fruits, andaugmenting the size and weight of clusters and fingers and the number of fingers 22)
17). A study on banana conducted in 1968 determined the quantities of three essential
nutrients, N, P and K, and demonstrated that the range of content of three elements
present in leaves required for the growth of banana was 3.2 – 3.4 % in whichpotassium accounted for 2.77 % on average. According to the results of diagnosis in
1993, potassium was identified as one of the limiting factors in banana production.
Subsequent studies conducted in 1968-70 ascertained the necessary conditions
for banana nutrition. A study on the farm of the University of Makerere found outthat the banana yield of the cultivar, Nakyetengu, increased from 20 tons to 40 tons
by application of 111 kg/ha of N and 36 kg/ha of P in the field mulched with a heapof elephant grass of 15 cm in depth. Based on the study result, tests are going on in
Kawanda and Makerere to determine the nutritional requirements in banana plants
56).
3) Farmers’ practices of soil management
Farmers have been practicing thefertilization management of banana cropby combining organic manure andchemical fertilizers. Furthermore, as theresources of organic manure, they use
not only mulch but also organic matterproduced in households, crop residues,
and organic wastes produced on farms.
Consequently the rate of application of Photo IV-11 Mulching treatment
organic materials differs depending on after planting of young plantsindividual farm households. However, the well cured manure applied at a rate of one
wheelbarrow load per plant amounts to about 20 tons per hectare (Banana
Programrne 1998). A recent survey indicates that in spite of economic difficulties forusing fertilizers, the quantity of application to banana is increasing.
The report of Bekunda and Woomer (1996) 5) has demonstrated that 4 % of banana
farmers in the central and the western regions of Uganda are using fertilizers. In
those areas where fertilizers are used, it is desirable to apply them in a circular belt
about 1 m apart from the pseudostem. If the ground is mulched, fertilizers have to be
applied beneath the mulch.
Large scale commercial production of banana is increasing. With cultural
practices including the planting of uninfected seedlings and the application of alarger amount of fertilizers under improved field management techniques, such atype of farming will possibly be able to contribute to the increase of banana
production in Uganda.

4. Breeding techniques
1) Hybridization breeding
Banana plants that are currently used for production are generally parthenocarpic
and unfilled seeds are generated in fruits, and those seeds are mostly incapable ofgermination. However, the efforts for breeding new varieties are being made basedon the expectation that by chance some germinable seeds might be produced among
them. First, selection is made about the parental plants of varieties having objective
characteristics, one used as maternal plant and the other as pollinator parent. Before
flowering starts on emerged inflorescences they are enclosed in bags to block thevisit of insects. At the moment when the maternal plant’s female flowers and thepollinating parent plant’s male flowers bloom, bags are removed, the male flowers
are taken out, the pistils of female flowers are rubbed with the anthers of male
flowers, and the bags are closed again to wait for the maturity of fruits.
 The matured fruit clusters are stored, seeds are extracted, and embryo culture is
carried out on the seeds including undeveloped ones by applying the technique oftissue culture, in order to raise plants
with novel characteristics.
 The history of breeding new banana
varieties started first in the early 1920s in
Trinidad and Jamaica 8) 44) 39) 40). Since
then, various programs of banana
breeding were started in different
countries, for example, Latin America 31)
32), France 2) 58) 59), Brazil 41) 42) 43), India
and Nigeria 28). All these programs werestarted with the objective of breeding
varieties tolerant to the diseases that had
been threatening bananas grown forcommercial purposes.
 The breeding programs of Honduras
have produced so far the largest numberof successful results. Among thevarieties developed by breeding
programs of the research institution of
Honduras, Fundacion Hondurena deInvestigacion Agricola (FHIA) (FHIA,
1997), those which have been imported
to Uganda include FHIA01, FHIA02,
FHIA03, FHIA17, FHIA21, FHIA23,
and FHIA25. FHIA01 is a variety that isinferior to the traditional Highland
bananas in terms of quality, but it has
been accepted by Ugandan farmers as a
cooking banana. Moreover, FHIA03 hasbeen adopted as a better banana variety

Photo IV-12 Rubbing bloomed
female flowers with anthers ofmaleflowers

Photo IV-13 Derived seeds

Photo IV-14 Embryo culture isapplied because not all seeds are
viable.for brewing purposes. The banana breeding program in Uganda (by collaboration
between the National Agricultural Research Organization and the International
Institute of Tropical Agriculture) was started in 1944 with the objective of the
improvement of agricultural characteristics of Highland bananas and thedevelopment of varieties resistant to the black sigatoka disease 28). This program
was implemented by the crossbreeding between the cross-fertile female Highland
banana clones that are susceptible to the disease and the diploid male plants thathave been developed through other breeding programs 1) 32) 60) and are highly resistantto the black sigatoka disease.
Provision of a crop species with resistance is one of the important criteria in thecontrol of diseases and pests for realizing ecologically sustainable cultivation.
Consequently, the efforts to solve the problems of diseases and pests in Highland
bananas through variety development have been recognized as the mostappropriate strategy. A recent survey conducted on producers has confirmed thefact that they consider the recommended cultural control practices require of themlots of labor and expense 14). Chemical control option is also available, but it isdifficult to adopt in view of the small scale subsistence farmers with low
profitability in Uganda. Moreover, the chemical control entails problems that not
only it is likely to affect non-targeted organisms (example: worms, natural
enemies, etc.), but also it involves chemicals that are often poisonous to humans
and animals.
Crossbreeding strategy is not feasible unless the seed production is possible by the
manipulation of sexual crossing as the first step of hybridization between different
clones. However, most of edible banana plants show a high sterility and do notdevelop seeds. As the causes of sterility, there are several conceivable factors
including disturbances in pollination or fertilization, and impediments to thedevelopment of ovules or zygotes 9) 10) 38) 44). The capacity of female flowers for
fertilization can be expressed in a quantified term of the average number of seeds
produced in a fruit cluster. The combination of clones that produced the mostnumerous seeds was that of Nfuuka and Nakabululu.
The rate of seed generation differs greatly depending on the combination ofclones, and ranges from 0 to 20 per fruit cluster.
It has been demonstrated that the clones that were capable of producing the mostnumerous seeds by the combination with Nfunka clone were Entukura(Enairabahima), Nante, Kabucuragye, Tereza, and Enyeru. Kazirakwe (Nakayonga)
and Mnkite (Nakasabira) were capable of producing the most numerous seeds by
the combination with Nakabululu clone. As observed in the case of Entukura, forexample, in which the number of seeds produced in each fruit cluster varies fromzero to 227, the capacity of seed production varies greatly within an identical clone.
The fact that viable seeds were obtained from some of these clones 50) indicates thatthe genetical improvement of East African Highland bananas by means ofcrossbreeding is feasible. Meanwhile, the factors responsible for the low rate of seedproduction are also being studied.
 As described above, in the past, the information on characteristics about clones ofHighland bananas was not well clarified. However, based on the classification
presented by Karamura (1998), the information on suitable combination has beenclarified, and hence steady progress of research can be now expected to be achieved,
although it may take some time.
 A study was made about the introduction and utilization of banana plants ofimproved cultivars of good quality, although they were not cooking bananas. So
far, several excellent varieties have been introduced, and the introduction of a larger
number of strains is looked forward to. As a possible action in future, it is required to
introduce, in response to the demand of consumers, the types and strains of bananas
that they want to have. In this manner, the research efforts for the variety
improvement by crossbreeding would contribute to the development of novel
varieties to enable the amelioration of production of East African Highland bananas.
Current variety development projects aim at the generation of resistance against theblack sigatoka disease as well as at the yield increase. Furthermore, researches are
ongoing also on the development of strains characterized by high levels of resistanceagainst weevils and nematodes. Judging from these circumstances, it is assumed that

there are great prospects for the successful control of diseases and pests of Highland
bananas.
2) Breeding by cell culture It is relatively easy to cause mutationsin the callus cells generated from plants.
In addition to mutations in somatic
systems due to natural sports that arelikely to occur in individual cells, othereffective techniques for generating
mutations are being tried and studied
under in vitro environment including:
Photo IV-15 Interior of thesystems to treat the calluses formed for
isolation greenhouse
breeding purposes and the liquids
suspending cells; regeneration of seeds that are hard to germinate under normal
environment; anther and pollen culture for obtaining haploid plants; isolation andfusion of protoplasts of plant species or interspecific crossing materials; and generecombination.
Currently there are three research institutions in Uganda mainly devoted to theplant tissue culture and implementing projects on these subjects. One is a laboratory
in Makerere University Agricultural Research Institute Kabanyolo (MUARIK) that
deals with diverse plant species including cassava, yams,tree crops and others.
Materials are multiplied mainly for the purposes of research and education, but they
are also utilized for the benefit of farmers and extension programs. The other two
institutions belong to NARO, with one unit working mainly on potato and sweet
potato and located at Namulonge Agricultural & Animal Research Institute(NAARI), and another unit of large-scale facilities for research on tissue culture,
charged with the production of seedlings, and currently focusing the efforts on
coffee and banana, which is stationed at Kawanda Agricultural Research Institute(KARI).
5. Raising young nursery plants
The raising of banana young plants is essentially carried out most easily andgenerally by the procedure in which suckers growing from rhizomes of parent plants
are separated and planted anew in pots or in a nursery plot. But the procedure has adrawback that it is difficult to prevent the spread of diseases and pests with thismeans of propagation. Local farmers are taking certain measures to prevent the
migration of pathogens and pests through new young plants, by trying as much as
possible to remove pathogens and pests from suckers used as young plants, in which
they collect suckers as young as possible, scrape off roots and outer layers of
rhizomes, and trim also the leaf sheaths to make them short. However, recently theshoot apex culture, i. e., a fast procedure for raising a large number of young plants
free from diseases and pests, is practiced and being promoted.
1) Raising young plants by biotechnology
Currently in Uganda, the technique of tissue culture is being promoted and the
young plants that have been produced by the culture of the uninfected or uninfested
meristem of suckers are commercially available. In particular, against thosediseases and pests which are difficult to control, such as virus diseases and various
diseases and nematodes, the cell culture techniques to multiply rapidly tissue cells
extracted from a meristem tissue have been established. The actual application of thetechniques is carried out principally by Mbarara University and the three research

Photo IV-16 Extraction ofmeristem from suckers

Photo IV-17 Scene of meristem
cultureinstitutions mentioned in the section on breeding. Furthermore, recently a certain
private enterprise also has participated in the business applying freely the techniques,
and is promoting actively the supply of the young plants freefrom diseases andinsects.
2) Planting of young plants raised by division of suckers
For the propagation of banana plants, even now when the fast mass production ofyoung plants by means of tissue culture has come into actual operation, thetraditional method of using suckers produced in banana fields is still practiced.
Suckers are cut off from the parent plant. In order to remove the traces of nematodes
and weevils, the pseudostem of sucker is cut off, and the superficial tissues on
peripheral parts damaged by nematodes and weevils are scraped off as elaborately as
possible. Thus prepared suckers are either planted in pots or transplanted into anursery plot or newly cleared fields.
The final transplanting of banana young plants has to be done at the beginning of
the rainy season, so that they may take root by the end of the rainy season. As ayoung plant suitable for planting, a sword-shaped sucker of 30-60 cm in length thatis as young as possible and with slender leaves branching off at a narrow angle isused. It should be avoided to use a soft and waterish sucker longer than 60 cm thatbears broad and juvenescent leaves.
As suitable young plants, it is needed to select suckers free from damage due todiseases and pests and clean them by removing outer leaf sheaths. Then cut off all
the roots and peel off outer skin layers of rhizome to remove manually diseases andpests. It should be avoided to plant the young plants in which outer skins have notbeen removed and the parts discolored with the damage due to nematodes andweevils have not been eliminated either.
In order to ascertain that a young plant is not infested with nematodes, it isnecessary to immerse in heated water the sucker of which outer skin layers havebeen removed. In the case where a young plant has been transported for a long
distance, the upper portion of the sucker has to be cut off at the level of 15 cm abovethe transitional zone between corm and pseudostem. Young plants produced by
the process of tissue culture are available from Kawanda Agricultural ResearchInstitute and Makerere University. These young plants are free from diseases andpests and possess uniform characters. Young plants by tissue culture are very muchsuited for the cases requiring a large number of uniform young plants.
When a newly prepared field is planted with banana young plants, the appropriate
distances between neighboring plants are said to be 3 m x 3 m. The dimension ofplanting hole has to be 45 cm in both breadth and depth. The planting hole has tobe filled with a mixture of soil and well cured manure, or with the dug up soil mixed
with 10 –20 liters of well cured manure. The young plant is placed at the center andburied with the remnant soil. Young plants should not be buried too deep, and thecovering with soil of about 5 cm in depth is appropriate.

Photo IV-18 Well-built youngplants with open leaves branching
off at narrow angles

Photo IV-19 Young plants withbroad leaves branching off at wide
angles are soft and feeble ones.

Photo IV-20 Scrape off peripheral Photo IV-21 Then cut off upperparts of sucker to remove pests
portion of pseudostem and plant
the young plants
3) Culture and distribution of young plants by private sector
There is a private enterprise producing banana young plants by means of tissue
culture. The company is called Agro-Genetic Technologies Ltd. (AGT). Althoughgeneral observation of the state of tissue culture was not allowed for the reason ofbusiness secret, Dr. Erostus W. N. Nsubuga, president, guided a tour of the processof transfer from the culture laboratory to the nursery pots of 6 cm in a plastic
greenhouse as well as a visit of the plastic greenhouse nursery to raise young plants
for sale.
According to the story of Dr. Nsubuga, although, after finishing university course,
he originally worked in business trying to disseminate cellular phones of Nokia, he
intended to launch a business involved in Ugandan agriculture, aiming at
contributing to the supply of high quality young plants by means of tissue cultureusing meristems that were free from pathogens. He said that he started his work firstin the home kitchen. The tissue culture uses sterile media for multiplication, and at
the stage of planting young plants outdoors, it is needed to use the soil which isalmost sterile as much as possible. While in advanced countries young plant
suppliers may often use the sterile soil that has been treated in autoclaves, Dr.
Nsubuga’s company is making use of a type of homemade steaming device. Thespecially built device consists of a square steel box about 2 m on a side in whichconcrete blocks are placed to support a steel grid. After pouring in water, bags
containing culture soil are piled up on the grid, and the box is heated with a fire built
under it to boil the water and sterilize the soil.
The president said that the young plant materials were cultured in a sterile roomfor 3 months and raised for 7 months in a plastic greenhouse, thus making it possible
to ship them out as commercial products in 10 months after the beginning of culture.
Immediately after the transfer to plastic pots in the nursery, young plants were
simply covered with plastic sheets in the plastic greenhouse and thus no particularhigh technology was applied, but
young plants of uniform quality werebeing produced.
Each young plant is shipped out in aplastic pot of about 15 cm. Youngplants are about 50-60 cm tall.
Reportedly, few of them are sold toordinary farmers, and most of themare purchased by government
institutions. The president says that

Photo IV-22 Work scene oftransplanting young plants ofmeristem culture to pots in agreenhouse.

Photo IV-23 Carrying by truck of Photo IV-24 Young plants for saleyoung plants raised byin a roadside young plant shop.
biotechnology. 
Whether they are infected withdiseases and pests is not known.
he wants to sell them to ordinary farmers in the future. Since the demand for banana
young plants is dependent on the rainy season, arising only twice a year in the tworainy seasons coming every year, and no demand exists during the dry seasons,creating problems in the context of business management, the president expresses
his intention to expand the business to include also the production of young plants ofornamental orchids for which year-round demand could be expected. As a proofof his intention to launch particularly the orchid business, he proudly showed to theauthor a trial product of Phalaenopsis orchid.
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Cosmopolites sordidus (Germar) (Coleoptera: Curculionidae). in: Nematodes
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Chapter V. Developments in banana processing andutilisation of the East African highland cooking
cultivars
1. Introduction
According to botanical classification, bananas are members of the family
Musaceae and of the order Zingiberales. The family Musaceae has two genera:
Musa and Ensete. Genus Musa contains all the edible cultivars and it consists of four
major sections: eumusa, australimusa, rhodochlamys and callimusa. The two latterfunctionally serve ornamental interest while the two former ones find popular use as
cooked vegetables. The majority of the edible bananas, however, derive from
species of Musa: Musa acuminata and Musa balbisiana14). Detailed classification of
genus Musa was first outlined by Stover and Simmonds19) and later by Coronel andRivera1). The distinction between bananas in Uganda, however, is better understoodalong their functional properties rather than genotypes. Bananas with similar
genotypes are sometimes classified under different functional groups. The key
functional groups are:(1) Cooking bananas (AAA-EA, Matooke)(2) Juice/beer bananas (AB, ABB and AAA-EA)(3) Dessert bananas (AB, AAA, eaten ripe)(4) Roasting bananas (AAB, plantain group)
The rank of their economic significance also follows the above order;subsequently the cooking bananas have an unparalleled significance to the country.
In a recent effort to classify and organise Uganda banana germplasm it was further
confirmed that the East African highland bananas (AAA-EA) formed five distinct
clusters based on female and male inflorescence characteristics5).
The cooking banana locally known as Matooke only constitutes the AAA-EA(but not including juice types or Mbidde). They are further classified into soft andhard types. The latter have marginal market potential. They are harvested between
three-quarters to full maturity, peeled and boiled or steamed in banana leaves duringwhich the colour changes from a creamy white to an almost golden yellow
depending on original maturity of the bunch. The extent of tenderness and yield tomash is, however, varietal dependant and it is a key consumer attribute18). The
cooked dough, popularly known as "Emere" literally meaning "the food" is virtually
free from astringency17) 18) . The hard varieties are sometimes boiled with their peelsin which case they are not mashed. These varieties blossom from leafy green into abright yellow fruit on ripening and become quite succulent at maximum ripenesswhen left to ripen.
Matooke is predominantly eaten in Uganda and the Great Lakes regions. It is
cultivated by up to 75% of the farmers and constitutes the chief dietary component
for more than 60% of the Uganda’s urban population16). Matooke has been further
documented as constituting the highest contribution to the calorie requirement of thepeople in Uganda8) and the most common weaning food for children in banana
growing regions in Uganda6).
Evidence from recent history of research on banana production in Uganda showsthat the above statistics notwithstanding its contribution to food security wascharacterized by seasonal instability and bottlenecks in the food distribution chain. It
subsequently brought in very marginal returns overall but especially to the grassroots
stakeholders, the farmers, due to the banana bulk in fresh form and the fact that thereal banana markets are far from the point of production. The latter results inexcessive transport costs and damage, leading to high post harvest losses
notwithstanding the fact that farm losses were already estimated at 20%. This iscompounded by the fact that there was no value added to bananas prior to marketing.
Indeed, until the commissioning of the Presidential Initiative on Banana Industrial
Development (PIBID) Project in Uganda, the research on production issues was notmatched by research on post harvest handling and utilisation.

2. Post harvest research
A baseline survey under the Uganda National Banana Research Programme
revealed that juice and Tonto (beer) were the main products of banana at thegrassroots level13). There was otherwise no record of any meaningful postharvest
activities with respect to Matooke in Uganda. The Uganda National Banana
Research Programme (UNBRP) subsequently prioritised the inclusion of post
harvest aspects in all subsequent research programmes on banana, so as to support
the characterisation of the physicochemical properties of the key banana cultivars in
Uganda in order to: (1) stimulate the addition of value to bananas' post-harvest, (2)stimulate the alternative utilisation of banana through processing, and (3) inform thebreeding programmes so as to support the sustainability of banana production.
On this background research was undertaken at Makerere University under thetitle Composition and Physicochemical Characteristics of Starches of Different
Banana Varieties. The study was designed to compare four cooking banana cultivars(Matooke) of the triploid acuminata East Africa highland cultivars (AAA-EA) witha range of hybrid cultivars including Bogoya (Cavendish relative, AAA), Sukali
Ndizi (AB), Gonja a plantain (AAB) and three juice cultivars namely Mbidde(AAA-EA), Musa Kayinja (ABB) and Kivuvu (ABB). The above research andsubsequent research have served to address the following issues:(1) Lend understanding of what constitutes Matooke as a food(2) The characterisation of the key components of Matooke(3) Processing of Matooke by applying technology that has been successfully
applied to the development of a new generation of novel products including:weaning foods, snacks, and bakery and confectionery products(4) Promotion of the Matooke based products for market uptake on both local andinternational trade foray
The Muranga study9) which has served as a backbone to these studies specificallyfocused on generating the following outputs. 5.2.1 is some of the highlights of theabove researches.

(1) To establish for all study samples the significant physiological andbiochemical indices at maximum green maturity(2) To test response of banana flour to a number of processing techniques andsubsequently the potential to yield second generation products(3) To establish the granular and molecular characteristics of the native starches(4) To evaluate paste characteristics of native starches with or without ingredientsand rheological characteristics of cold and hot pastes(5) To evaluate effect of hydrothermal treatment on both granular and pasting
characteristics of some representative samples
1) Characterisation of physicochemical properties of Matooke raw material
Table V-1 shows the chemical composition on dry basis for 5 common Matooke
cultivars at maximum green maturity9). They were analysed for moisture content,
starch, dietary protein, fat, crude fibre, ash, calcium, potassium, magnesium andtannin content. The moisture content ranged between 8-10% (dB). Nandigobe
cultivar had a higher moisture content (9.6%) which could explain its soft texture
when cooked compared to other cultivars. Similarly, Bukumu which had the lowest
moisture content (8.1%) has a harder texture when cooked. The starch levels werehigh and ranged between 81-85%. The variations in starch content are attributed tocultivar age differences at their maximum green maturity. The starch content also
has a positive correlation to age at maturity (r = +8.7).
The protein levels of Matooke were generally low and varied from 4.0 to 5.5%.
These values were in agreement with other studies those of Watt and Merill21) andKayisu3). Muranga further reported a high negative regression coefficient between
protein and starch content in Matooke. The fat content of Matooke was low, lessthan 1% on dry basis. The low fat is a critical positive attribute in the development of
shelf stable Tooke flours and generic products due to reduced risk to oxidation. The
crude fibre was low, ranging between 0.8 to 1.4 %.
The ash content was high and it varied between 3.5-4.4%. Potassium is anabundant macro mineral in Matooke whose composition varies from 1.7 to 1.9%.
The high content of potassium is attributable to the thriving of Matooke in only
potash rich soils9). The other macro minerals analysed include magnesium andcalcium whose composition is less than 0.1 and 0.01% respectively. The levels oftannins in Matooke are very low and vary from 0.1 to 0.2%. The low level oftannins could explain the minimal astringency and increased palatability ofMatooke.


Table V-1 Chemical composition of Matooke (dB) at maximum green maturity

ND: Not determined.
Source: Muranga, 1998

Clearly there are four definite advantages in its composition that could also favour
its processing/marketing: (1) the high levels of potassium content; which isimportant nutritionally as an anti-dote to high blood pressure, (2) the virtual absenceof fat and sugar; which is critical for keeping quality of flours i.e. long shelf-life, (3)the very low levels of amylose content; which minimise cooking loss inpregelatinisation process, and (4) the very low levels of intensity of condensed
tannins; which render the cooked Matooke free from bitterness/astringency.
Highlights of the study also revealed that the East African Highland cultivars(Matooke) mature fastest. On average, it reached full blown maturity within 15
weeks. On the contrary, most hybrid cultivars mature well beyond 20 weeks. The
latter differences were further underlined by the fact that the Matooke cultivar
peel/pulp ratio appreciated fastest during development. The mature green Matookefrom the different cultivars on dry basis displayed some critical factors about thecomposition of Matooke namely that on average at harvest maturity the Matooke
contained between 80-85% starch on dry basis, which is far above any of the local
staples including cereals.
The native starch studies yielded the following highlights, which could be criticalto the industrialisation process:(1) The starch had a very high level of purity (97-100%) with virtually no fat.
(2) The starch granules were particularly resistant to swelling with highgelatinisation temperatures (>70oC).
2) The processing characteristics of Matooke
Technologies that have been exploited for processing of other starchy staples
could be successfully applied for adding value to Matooke. A scheme adapted from
Ogazi has been adapted and modified for purposes of testing operations on Matooke
processing9). The most successful so far however, are the Raw and Instant Tookeflours as shown below in Photo V-1 and Photo V-2 respectively. Flours from
Matooke have been successfully branded as Tooke by PIBID.
Tooke flours prepared from raw Matooke have been tested in a range of bakery
products with tremendous success. This is because as already pointed out Matooke
flour contains between 80-85% starch. Further, starch granule particle size ofMatooke is quite close to that of the big wheat starch granule. The Raw Tooke
Flours (RTF) have been substituted in bread, cakes, biscuits and pastries
successfully.

Photo V- 2 Branded Raw Tooke
Flour in its attractive package

Photo V-1 Branded Instant Tooke
Flour in its attractive package

Source: PIBID

Source: PIBID(1) Raw Tooke Flours (RTF) and their applications
RTF’s for their unique starch properties cited above have been used successfully,
to substitute up to 30% for wheat flour in bread (Photo V-3). The RTF particularly
produced bread of almost comparable quality to pure wheat with respect to mostcommon bread attributes except for the slight loss of bread volume.

Photo V-3 Bread incorporating Raw Tooke flour (L-R) Normal white bread,
10%, 20% and 30% Raw Tooke flour incorporation in bread.
Source: Muranga, 1998

Photo V-4 Cross section of cakes incorporating 30% RTF (7) and two otherbanana flour (6 and 4) in contrast to wheat and cornstarch (N)Source: Muranga, 1998



Photo V-4 above shows a cross section of three sand cakes incorporating 30%
RTF in contrast to the standard from wheat/cornstarch. Cakes made with up to 30%
RTF had very good consumer attributes. Those from RTF were closest in
appearance to those from pure
wheat flours. The latter can be
explained by the fact that Tookeflours have very high content ofstarch on dry basis and inconventional sand cake recipes
one third of the wheat flours isalways substituted for by starch.
Photo V-5 Wheat/Matooke biscuit
Substitution of Raw Tooke
Source: PIBID
flour for wheat flour (up to 45%)
for the making of biscuits extremely increased the overall acceptability of biscuits.
i.e. the higher the level of substitution with Tooke flour the better the sensory
characteristics particularly with respect to texture and colour.
(2) Ready to eat (Pregelatinised) Tooke flours
Three types of Instant Tooke flours (ITF) have been prepared from Matooke
applying extrusion cooking, drum drying as well as a technique filed for patenting as
UG/P/04/00010. All these flours can be applied in a range of products including
soups and porridges and enjoy excellent shelf-life. The ITF have been subjected toconsumer profiling of strategic groups in the country with relative success including
the following study that was funded by African Institute of Capacity Development(AICAD).
(3) Fortified Tooke flours and their potential as children’s weaning foods
Following on to the fact that Matooke contains high levels of starch on dry basis,an award was obtained from the Rockefeller Foundation to look at the potential of
Tooke flour obtained applying the above technologies as a carbohydrate resource forweaning foods. Soy and Sesame were applied for fortification and the following
products have been obtained after an optimisation process:(1) Tooke soy/sesame fortified products (soup & porridge) from raw, extruded andprecooked Tooke flours(2) Tooke/soy fortified products (soup & porridge) from raw, instant and extruded
Tooke flours
Thereafter this author obtained a grant from AICAD which enabled her toestablish the potential of Instant Tooke as a vehicle food for malnutritionintervention as outlined in the abstract below.
The aim of this study was to establish the potential of Instant Tooke flour(ITF) as a vehicle food for malnutrition intervention. 100 malnourished children
admitted at Mwanamugimu Nutrition Unit Mulago hospital, Kampala, Uganda,
were randomly allocated to either the test or control groups. The test group was
fed on ITF developed under part I of this study, while the control group was fed
on the Mwanamugimu dietary regime. Growth rate and food intake were
measured daily, while blood samples were taken during recruitment and before
discharge for testing serum albumin, ferritin and retinol levels. The means of thetwo groups were compared using univariate ANOVA of GLM of the SPSS
version 11.0 statistical package. The protein and energy intake for the test groupwas significantly (P<0.05) higher in the porridge, while protein intake for thecontrol group was significantly (P<0.05) higher in the kitoobero. The protein andenergy intake were comparable between the two groups in high energy milk(HEM). The weight gain in the test group was significantly (P<0.05) higher thanthe control group, but there was no significant difference in serum albumin,
ferritin and retinol values between the test and control groups. The study provedthat ITF adequately met the protein and energy requirements of themalnourished children on rehabilitation, thereby justifying its use as a vehicle
food for malnutrition intervention.
The above results have empowered us to test ITF as a vehicle food for schoolfeeding programme. This programme is also running on partial funding from
AICAD.
The above volume of research led to the Government of the Republic ofUganda’s Investments in the Development of a fully fledged banana Industry.

3. The Presidential Initiative on Banana Industrial Development(PIBID)
1) Background(1) Development strategy of Uganda Government
The Government of the Republic of Uganda in 1997 developed the Poverty
Eradication Action Plan (PEAP) as Uganda’s comprehensive Development
Framework. The PEAP in its revised version (2004/5-2007/8) provides anover-arching framework to guide public action to eradicate poverty. For thetransformation of the agricultural sector two pillars are particularly significant, as
follows:
ձ The economic management pillar, which is designed to target,
modernisation/commercialisation of agriculture with emphasis on value
addition; removal of bureaucratic barriers to investment; actions to enhancerural access to finance & strengthen SME development and actions toenhance environmental Sustainability.
ղ A pillar for enhancement of production, competitiveness and incomes, whichtargets increasing the ability of firms to innovate & adapt to new technologies,
thereby increasing the ability of the private sector to profitably increase
market share.
Inline with the PEAP, Government developed the Plan for Modernization ofAgriculture (PMA), which is a holistic strategic framework for eradicating poverty
through multi-sectoral interventions, which empower the people to improve theirlivelihoods in a sustainable manner. PMA stipulates that faster growth of agriculture
will drive growth in other part of the rural economy. Accordingly PMA’s main goal
is to accelerate agricultural growth in Uganda by introducing profound technologicalchange throughout the sector as a strategy for raising incomes of the poor, who are
predominantly rural based women.
(2) Research of Banana Processing
Currently, Uganda is the world’s largest consumer of bananas, with average percapita consumption of 243 kg (FAO) per year to 300 kg4). Uganda ranks only second
to India in the world’s production, regrettably Uganda does not specifically feature in
the world’s banana production statistics simply because it has no position in thevibrant banana market, since its main banana crop is Matooke, a non-dessert banana
cultivar. Fortunately, developments in Matooke research have led to the dehydration& physicochemical characterisation of bananas to yield patentable forms of Tookeflour (Patent No. AP/P/2005/003308) both in the raw and instant forms as well as
one generic flour from the Raw Tooke flour in extruded (soluble) form9).
The study of the Raw Tooke flour has revealed that the flour from Matooke isunique in contrast to that from other banana flours9), particularly with respect tostarch, potassium and phenolic contents, which together, have evolved as the prime
indicators of Tooke flour quality with respect to consumer and end use profiling. The
flour’s unique properties include among others, the following: 80% starch (db) with
8% only amylose content, negligible levels of condensed tannin, high levels of
potassium, which is very good for health, virtual lack of sugar and fat, which ensuresextensive shelf-life free from caking or rancidity; and virtual lack of gluten, whichmakes it appropriate for celiac patients. The Instant Tooke flour on the other hand, isfurther characterised by high content of soluble fibre and mineral content15) which
has opened for it a niche market as a potential starch base in a range of pregel-based
formulations, including porridges, soups, sauces and instant doughs for both healthy,
and compromised groups. The extruded Tooke flour is particularly characterised by
its exceptionally high water solubility index which has endowed it with phenomenal
potency in the rehabilitation of severely malnourished children10).

2) The framework of PIBID
On the above background, in 2005 H. E the President of the Republic of Uganda
established the Presidential Initiative on Banana Industrial Development (PIBID) in
order to kick-start the value addition to Matooke through a smart-Public-Private
Partnership. In the PIBID institutional framework, Government’s objective is toharness research faculty innovations through an R&D framework for rural enterprisedevelopment, operating on the principle of Technology Business Incubator (TBI).
The focal point of the project is a designated Field Research Station in Bushenyi
District, South-western Uganda with five main functions: (1) Value Addition &Quality Control, (2) Food Product Development, (3) Research & Training, (4)Commercialisation of Production and (5) Business Development & Marketing.
The "Value Addition & Quality Control" function is designed to develop throughthree consecutive levels; primary, secondary and tertiary. The primary levelcomprises the initial phase of the product process development and product quality
assurance and safety for both the raw and instant Tooke flours; preparation of raw
and instant Matooke chips, quality assurance of dried Matooke chips packaging &storage of Matooke chips. The secondary level will constitute the second phase inproduct process development and product quality assurance and safety and will
include: milling operations for raw and cooked Matooke chips; quality assurance ofTooke flour, including test-baking, packaging and storage of Tooke flour, shelf-life
determination and basic product development aspects. The tertiary level phase will
involve process/product technology transfer and commercialization, which will
include new product development and manufacture testing, as well as incubation of
the scaling up of the Matooke flour enterprise, by small to medium sized enterprises(SME). This is consistent with the priority actions under Government’s marketing
and agro-processing strategy (MAPS), which empowers Government to intervene
so as to promote increases in Uganda’s export competitiveness through strategic
exports development, value addition/new product development; promotion of
products in domestic, regional and international markets; and set-up industrial parks.
However, if the Matooke flour is to gain an entry point into the global market chains,it has to link into specified end-use quality profiles as well as product quality. Thereis therefore, need to optimise quality assurance and quality control protocols forflour and generic products, in order to assure standardization and branding.
PIBID is set to cause the transformation of the Matooke marketing map throughexport promotion where the majority will be the key stakeholders of the process assummarised in Fig. V-1, following the processed value chain. Through PIBID theGovernment of Uganda tasked herself with the challenging task of transforming a
low value status commodity to an industrial raw material through a strong
public-private-partnership.

Fig. V- 1 Projection of the transformed Matooke value chain
Source: Muranga, 2009

PIBID has made some preliminary projection right from the onset of the project tohelp illustrate potential benefits to the majority using conservative benchmarks.
Taking the worst case scenario where farmers were failing to market their Matooke
and were therefore giving it away at a laughable cost of 300 UGX /= (0.15 USD) wewere able to show that the farmers would make significant profit on both the local
and export markets if they were to be mainstreamed in the value chain. As per
Table V-2 below.
Table V-2 Projected income for farmers, 2006

Income(USD)

20 kg bunch@ 0.15 USD

20 kg bunch@ 0.5 USD

20 kg bunch@ 1.5 USD

Tooke flour (3kg)@ 1 USD/kg(local)Tooke flour (3kg)@ 2 Euros*/kg
or 3 USD/kg (Export)

0.15

0.5

1.5

3

12

20 kg bunch approximately yields 3 kg flour
Matooke flour estimates were lab estimates
Matooke export source quoted by the pioneer buyer /distributor for Europe
Source: Kizza et al., 2004

The Matooke value addition route was projected to offer the long term potential
for transformation of the existing cheap Matooke industry. The changing lifestyle ofhousewives was bound to dictate increased demand for processed Matooke based
products, including flours and generic products from flours such as confectioneries,
pasta macaroni equivalent i.e. Matooroni etc. The Matooke industry development,
however, is peculiar to Uganda due to the exclusive growth of Matooke in the Great
Lakes region. Subsequently a strategic planning and development process to guidethe industry was proposed which would ensure minimization of risks to the private
sector, and prioritisation of the most viable products. The latter process consists ofthree key stages: (1) a joint effort by the public and private sectors to confirm themarket attractiveness of the sector, (2) establishment of the competitive strength of
the interested parties in the private sector, and (3) confirmation of consumer
satisfaction and therefore market success of the identified products by the private
sector. Because there was no viable flour production in the country at the time, this

writer recommended a pilot banana processing through a Technology Business
Incubator (TBI) system for the development of primary value-addition stage of thebanana industry, and an Industrial Technology Park (ITP) for the expansion stage or
secondary value-addition.
3) Strategy for streamlining of the PIBID value chain
PIBID’s goal is to kick-start a pilot industry in banana value addition, yielding
products with both market strength and competitiveness, through a state-of- the-art
banana-based sustainable processing enterprises, nurtured under a TBI and an ITP
infrastructure framework, enshrined into University academic & technical research
and manned by rural farmers and entrepreneurs. Its mission is to offer rural farmers
technical/scientific services, outreach and Research & Development (R&D)
opportunities in: (1) sustainable Matooke production; (2) sustainable andcompetitive value addition to Matooke; (3) business and product processdevelopment; (4) product quality assurance & safety; (5) Process/producttechnology transfer and commercialization so as to ensure the birth of a state-of-theart banana processing industry run by peasants in banana cropping systems. Namely
the following four factors needed to be addressed if the rural farmers were to
maintain their strategic stake in the Matooke value chain.
(1) Access to tested technologies in order to optimize their production capacity
PIBID has positioned herself to address the need of the majority to access tested
technologies by harnessing knowledge from a critical mass of professionals in
production, value addition through the TBI, where research infrastructure is availed
to enable them concentrate on demand-driven research through the incubation
process. The TBI will namely supply three functions: Commercialised agricultural
production, value addition and quality control and business and marketing training.
The objective of the production function will be largely to ensure sustainablesupply of the right quantity and physiologically ascertained quality of raw Matookenecessary for sustaining value addition operations and food security. Therebysubsequently transform the majority from peasantry agriculture to commercial
production by training them to adopt high input strategy, best soil management
practices, and high tech water- soil nutrient management practices such as coupling
irrigation to biomass by-products as well as sustainable environmental management.
At the current production levels, processing of the Tooke flour would have been
inevitably only viable during the peak season, which would render the capital
investment unnecessarily expensive besides the negative impact on the export
market due to inconsistency in product availability. Besides, our cash projections at
the time of starting of the project showed that at the current yield of 7 tonnes
per/ha/year the farmer operated at a net total loss of 573 USD per year even at aconstant farm gate price of 0.75 USD per bunch (0.0375 USD/kg)15).
(2) Access to improved community based infrastructure that can support competitive
value addition
Fig. V-2 represents the conceptual framework of the community processing centre
through which the value addition and quality control function objective is toempower farmers’ access to technology, through communal infrastructure offering
opportunity for product technology transfer and commercialization and productquality assurance and safety for both the Raw and Instant Tooke flours.
The capacity building process through which stakeholders under the TBI will
have to graduate through a transparent capacity peer review mechanism. First,
graduating as a model farmer and then qualifying to join a processing unit orassociation. The members within the community who will graduate to join theCommunity processing centres will then be facilitated to develop a value addition
centre similar in function.

Fig. V-2 Conceptual framework of community processing centre
Source: UEPB, 2009.

There is a close interdependent relationship between the community and thescientist prior to the knowledge transfer process that cascades the farmer through aseries of graduation to ultimately arrive at the level of a strong entrepreneur
emerging out of the ITP. Naturally not everyone reaches the ITP but each one once
empowered will position themselves strategically at their point of comparativeadvantage in the value chain.
(3) Access to accurate knowledge and information
It will be met through PIBID’s research & development/training function which
will serve to address demand-driven capacity building and research needs for all
farmers/processors. Professionals are being harnessed to generate relevant and tailor
designed training materials. The farmers will receive training in value addition andquality control, commercialised production best practices and business andmarketing. Under value addition farmer entrepreneurs will graduate to different
levels of value addition through a transparent peer review and performanceassessment mechanism. Besides PIBID has established a framework for businessand product process development with the Commodity Trading Centre (CTC) as thehub. The activities at the CTC include identifying market opportunities and creating
market entry strategies (branding, logos etc.), collaborating with Uganda National
Bureau of Standards (UNBS) to create a standard for banana flours by PIBID, andtesting end-user responses to new product formulations/recipes.
(4) Empowerment in their bargaining power through the formation of strong
marketing associations
The pilot plant at the TBI will be furnished with bulking facilities which will
empower the Community Processing Association (CPA) members to hold theirproduce against price fluctuation. The strengthening of the community association is
being done right from the grassroots through formation of viable farmers andprocessing association by: facilitating & promoting linkages among farmers,
processing associations, processors, consumers & service providers; establishing a
network of market information centres linking farmers, traders and community
processor organisations.
Literature cited in Chapter V
1) Coronel, R. E. and F. N. Rivera 1983, The origin of banana varieties, Calf. Rare
Fruit Flowers, 15: 73.
2) Gold, C. S., E. B. Karamura, A. Kiggundu, A. Abera, F. Bagamba, M. Wejuli, R.
Kalyebara., D. A. Karamura, and R. Sendege 1996, Geographic shifts inhighland bananas production in Uganda, MusAfrica: The Plantain and Banana
Newsletter, IITA, 10: 7.
3) Kayisu, K. 1980, Characterisation of the starch and sugar fractions of banana fruit,
Ph. D. Thesis, Cornell University, USA.

4) Karamura, D. A. , 1998, Numerical taxonomic studies of the East-african
Highland bananas (Musa AAA-East Africa) in Uganda, Ph.D. Thesis. Universityof Reading, UK.
5) Karamura, D. A., B. Pickersgill, D. Vuylsteke, C. S. Gold, E. Karamura, and A.
Kiggundu 1996, Classification and organization of Ugandan banana germplasm
using numerical taxonomic techniques, MusAfrica: The plantain and banana
newsletter, IITA, 10: 7.
6) Kikafunda, J. K. 1996, Dietary risk factors for childhood malnutrition in Uganda,
Ph.D Thesis, Department of Food Science and Technology, University ofReading, UK, 10-15.
7) Kiiza, B., S. Abele and R. Kalyebara, 2004. Market opportunities for Ugandan
banana products: National, regional and global perspectives. Uganda Journal of
Agricultural Sciences 9 (3): 743-749.
8) MAAF, 1989, Ministry of Agriculture, Statistical Dept., Entebbe, Uganda.
9) Muranga, F. I. 1998, Banana starch: A comparative study of composition andphysicochemical characteristics of starches for different banana varieties, Ph.D.
Thesis, Makerere University, Uganda.
10) Muranga, F. I. 2004, Investigation of potential of processed landrace and hybridbananas as a vehicle food for malnutrition interventions, Final substantive reportfor ACA Rockefeller Foundation, Grant No. 2001 FS 082.
11) Muranga, F. I. 2009, positioning the majority in the export value chain- the caseof PIBID, Uganda export promotion board; keeping pace with export drivers in achanging world, 2 October.
12) Muranga, F. I., H. Sampath, J. A. Marlett, J. M. Ntambi 2007, Impact ofprocessing technique on the apparent bioavailability of cooking banana(Matooke) starch, African Journal of Biochemistry Research, 1(5): 72-77.
13) National Agricultural Research Organization (NARO) 2005, Banana marketingand utilisation in Uganda: Baseline survey report, National Banana Research
Programme, NARO, Uganda. (unpublished)
14) Palmer, J. K. 1971, The Banana, In: Hulme, A. A. (ed.) The biochemistry offruits and their products, Academic Press, 65-105.
15) Presidential Initiative on Banana Industrial Development, PIBID 2005, PIBID
Project Concept.
16) Rubaihayo, P. R. 1991, Banana-based cropping systems research: A report on a
rapid rural appraisal survey of banana production, Research Bulletin, Uganda
National Banana Research Programme, 2, 73.
17) Sebasigari, K. 1996, Characterization of exotic bananas to determine their fruit
utilisation according to food habits in East Africa Musa Africa, The plantain and
Banana Newsletter, IITA., 10, 7.
18) Semwanga, J. K. 1996, Factors likely to influence acceptability and preference
for new Matooke banana cultivars in Uganda: A qualitative and quantitative
investigation, Ph. D. Thesis, Cranfield University, UK.
19) Stover, R. H. and N. W. Simmonds 1978, Banana of Musa in E. Africa, In
Percely, G. J. and de Langhe, E. A. eds., Banana and Plantain Breeding
Strategies; Proceedings of an international workshop held at Cairns, August:13-17 October. Brown Prior Anderson Pty Ltd., 172-176.
20) Uganda Export Promotion Board (UEBP) 2009, Keeping pace with export
drivers in a changing world; Positioning the majority in the export value chain:
the case of PIBID, The Occasion of Uganda’s Annual President’s Export Award
Ceremony, October 2.
21) Watt, B. K. and A. L. Merrill 1975, Handbook of the nutritional contents offoods, Dover Publications, New York.

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Cooking Banana in Africa
㻌㻯 JAICAF 2010
‫ۑ‬Published in March 2010
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