Scientists at the Kenyatta University (KU) are evaluating and multiplying climate-smart hybrid cooking banana varieties that are disease resistant and have a better taste for the matoke delicacy.

In Kenya, bananas are the fourth most produced crop after sugarcane, maize and potatoes and the third most important food after maize and rice. The annual production stands at 1.5 million tons, which is rather low compared to Uganda and Tanzania with an annual production of 4.4 and 4 million tons, respectively.

“The dismal productivity is attributed to continued cultivation of low yielding varieties, deteriorating climatic conditions, soil degradation, pests and diseases. Past interventions have mainly focused on the dissemination of disease-free tissue culture TC seedlings of commercial dessert bananas,” said Mary Mwangi from Biochemistry, Microbiology and Biotechnology (BMB) at Kenyatta University. The hybrid banana varieties being evaluated under Climate-Smart Banana Project (CLISMABAN) will be high yielding and resistant to diseases. “There has been little adoption of cooking bananas and plantains, yet they have the potential to address the rampant food insecurity in the country. Besides, gender shifts arising from commercial banana farming have generated observable gender-based violence within the households.”

Mary Mwangi added that farmers continue to incur huge losses due to poor yields and increased susceptibility to pests and diseases occasioned by climate change.
To address this, scientists from the CLISMABAN consortium have brought for the first time into Kenya hybrids of cooking banana, named NARITA, developed over the last 20 years through a collaborative effort between the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA) and the National Agricultural Research Organization (NARO) in Uganda.

“The NARITAs are higher-yielding Matoke varieties which are acceptable to the farmers and consumers and also resistant to diseases. Breeders did conventional crossbreeding of wild banana varieties that are resistant to the preferred matoke varieties that are grown in Uganda. So they came up with 27 new NARITA hybrids with 25 of them currently being evaluated in Kenya and Uganda under the CLISMABAN project,” Mary said. This evaluation is implemented by a consortium of researchers from Kenya, Uganda, Spain, and Belgium, and is coordinated by the Vlaams Instituut voor Biotechnologie-International Plant Biotechnology Outreach (VIB–IPBO) and funded by the LEAP-Agri: EU-Africa Research and Innovation grant.

The project is aimed at exploiting the existing genetic resources and diversity of bananas to select varieties resilient to climate change-induced constraints. This is being done by using a participatory gender-responsive approach that involves all stakeholders in the banana and plantain value chains in Kirinyaga, Embu, and Murang’a Counties, Kenya. Prof. Grace Wamue-Ngare from the departments of Sociology, Gender & Development Studies (Centre for Gender Equity & Empowerment) said the team has embarked on popularization and evaluation of improved cooking banana (NARITA) and plantain (PITA) hybrids using a participatory, gender-integrated approach for the entire CLISMABAN project, including farmers and other players in the banana and plantain value chains. In this, she advises on affirmative action, where applicable, especially in all training and knowledge transfer activities. Mary, on the other hand, works closely with other scientists in the team to identify the most promising accessions for evaluation in Kenya. Mary said that based on the KEPHIS requirements, Kenyatta University has supported the establishment of a tissue culture laboratory in BMB to specifically propagate the new varieties. “So far, 25 accessions of NARITAs coming from Uganda have been successfully multiplied, acclimatized and planted in the KU research farm. Data collection on agronomic performance is ongoing in the laboratory, greenhouse and the farm,” Mary said, adding that this information will guide the selection of the most promising accessions.

The next step is to embark on participatory varietal selection whereby gender-integrated farmers will work closely with the researchers to identify the most desirable varieties based on agronomic and sensory evaluations. “The team will generate data to support variety release using the laid-out procedures. The sustainability plan is one, to utilize the laboratory for training and commercial propagation. The team is looking into the possibility of establishing an in vitro cooking banana and plantain germplasm conservation centre at KU, as well as extending the demonstration and research farm for the climate-resilient varieties at KU, Kitui campus” said Mary.

Notes to readers:
The Climate Smart Banana Project (CLISMABAN) has a strong capacity-building strategy that targets producers and researchers thereby training them in different aspects of the banana research-to-market pipeline. This activity aims at stimulating better utilization of scientific results.
The Kenyan team comprises Prof. Grace Wamue-Ngare from the Departments of Sociology, Gender & Development Studies (Centre for Gender Equity & Empowerment) and Mrs Mary Mwangi from Biochemistry, Microbiology and Biotechnology.

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