The Effects, Distribution and Management Options for Major Banana Diseases in Tanzania

Emergences of Fusarium wilt, Bacterial wilt and Black Sigatoka diseases have caused banana yield loss of up 100% in Tanzania. Though there have been accumulated empirical data on yield decline due to diseases, lack of disease knowledge and selection of appropriate control methods has been a limiting factor in improving banana production. Therefore, this review focused on identifying different management options for major banana diseases, for purpose of providing reference and decision making tools to farmers, extension officers, researchers and decision makers. Using online resources, we identified several methods which are affordable, applicable and reliable for disease management in the country. These includes sanitation, intercropping, crop rotation, prevention, irrigation, drainage improvement, quarantine, use of silicon/calcium and awareness campaigns. Other method was biological control, which need further research on its applicability and impact on the environment. Moreover the use of resistant cultivars though being important, there is little achievement which have been made on breeding for resistance, because banana are polyploidy, parthenocarpic, have long generation time, loss of resistance and poor acceptability of new cultivars. We also found that, no single method is perfect for management of diseases; this is due to the fact that, in agricultural system, disease challenges rarely occur singly. So the approach to disease management should be pragmatic and geared towards integration of several appropriate methods. We hereby conclude that, researches should focus on identifying the best and feasible combination of control methods that can be used by Smallholder farmers.