An Overview Of Our Solution
Banana production in Kenya has been on a rapid decline over the last three decades threatening food security, income generation and reduced employment. Nematodes have cut average banana yields on traditional farms to beyond half. Cultural practices aimed at controlling nematodes have been inefficient. Farmers transmit banana nematodes through suckers. Scientific reports show development of nematodes resistance to nematicides. Besides, use of nematicides has faced major challenges including risks to consumers and environment, and high costs of application. Beneficial organisms such as endophytes have been re-introduced into tissue culture banana shortly after de-flasking and before potting and were demonstrated to lower the number of nematodes. This method is considered a novel approach in biological control of banana parasitic nematodes.
Who is this solution impacting?
Community Type
Rural
Additional Information
- Population Impacted:
- Continent: Africa
General Information
Organization type
individual
Ecosystem (select all that apply)
Forests
Population impacted
10,000
Challenge
Size of agricultural area
150 ha
Production quantity
1000 kilos
People employed
3 people
Solution
Describe your solution
Management of nematodes is crucial and important step towards realization of optimal banana yields. Although the project has not been rolled out yet to the banana farmers, preliminary studies indicate that it’s a cost effective and sustainable environmentally friendly method of pest management. If adopted, producers will use less pesticides, and more so, reduce on the toxic use of nematicides for nematodes management. It was evident from the experiments that the endophytes are persistent, and can be passed over to the next generation of banana ratoon crops over time. The producers will then have less pesticides application, thus conserving the environment and biodiversity. It envisioned that, the same technology can be applied to other crops, which are profitable and hard to produce due to such problems as nematodes. A case has been identified in greenhouse tomato production in Kenya, where high yield losses are incurred due to nematodes infestations in greenhouses. Use of locally isolated micro-organisms such as endophytes or other suitable class of micro-organisms can be used to eliminate such a problem in an environmentally and sustainable way.
Implementation
Describe your implementation
The experiments proved that nematodes in tissue culture bananas can be managed in a sustainable manner. Farmers were organized into small holder networks who managed tissue culture banana nurseries for their communities. It was envisioned that, at the end of the project, small holder producers would be supplied with endophytes enhanced plantlets from Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture (which is the pioneer of tissue culture banana technology in Kenya). As a result, the producers would not have to worry about nematodes management, but contrastingly concentrate with banana orchard management. The results were demonstrated to farmers during open farmer’s days, international conferences and also at local agricultural exhibitions. There are enabling environment in Kenya for the adoption of this technology. The only obstacle at the moment limiting the full scale adoption of the technology is the registration of the fungal isolate as a biological control agent with the Pest Control Products Board.
External connections
Some of the key partners included the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA-Uganda), Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology (JKUAT-Kenya) and Plant Research International (Wageningen-Netherlands). The efforts in my research connects with other sectors such as fisheries due to conservation of underground water resource by the harmful nematicides. There is also conservation of biodiversity by promotion of conservation agriculture, leading to sustainable use of resources such as local biodiversity. Promotion of biological control methods could probably help shape policy on restriction of use of harmful chemicals such as nematicides in production of crops.
Results
What is the environmental or ecological challenge you are targeting with your solution?
Nematodes are microscopic worms invading banana plants roots. Banana is attacked by numerous species of nematodes leading to yield losses. Control of nematodes complicated since there are no effective methods to date. Chemical control depends on use of nematicides which are extremely harmful to the applicants, non-target organisms and to end users. There has been drastic withdrawal of nematicides from the market due to health and environmental problems. Withdrawal elucidated scientific research focused on the biological control of nematodes. Numerous antagonists against nematodes have been described. In recent years the ecology, biology and potential of biological control agents have been published. However, in Africa, the use of biological control methods for the control of nematodes in bananas is limited. My studies addressed the use of less toxic, locally available fungal isolates to manage nematodes in a sustainable way for poor resources small scale banana farmers in Kenya.
Describe the context in which you are operating
The context of my operation involves small scale banana producers in rural Kenya. These banana farmers rely on their production for livelihood and food security. However, in order to achieve a sustainable livelihood, there is need to get sustainable solution to pests and disease menace in banana production. The producers cannot afford to procure high end agrochemicals, which are on the other hand toxic to the envirironment. Therefore the use of biological control measures brings sustainability into production and also conservation of the environment and biodiversity all together.
How did you impact natural resource use and greenhouse gas emissions?
Isolation and utilization of local endophytic fungal isolates for the management of banana nematodes helps improve soil biodiversity, by reducing the harmful impact of nematicides to non-target biodiversity, including fish and humans. The toxicity of systemic nematicides was and will be eliminated when the technology of enhancing tissue culture banana plants with endophytes is rolled out.
Language(s)
Kiswahili and English
Water
There is no use nematicides, which are known to contaminate above and below ground water resources. Thus the water in communities where bananas are produced will remain safe and fit for both animal and human consumptions.
Food Security/Nutrition
Enhanced banana plantlets require less inputs including pesticides. Additionally, due to high resistance to nematodes, they are expected to offer higher yields, a direct result to contribution to food security.
Economic/Sustainable Development
Banana farming is a business for most farmers in Kenya, who rely on sales of bananas in local markets. Offering sustainable nematodes management strategy increases the returns gained per hectare compared to when the nematodes are not managed. Additionally, the management is sustainable, since it requires only one time application of the endophytes at the production of the tissue culture banana plantlets.
Climate
Lesser use of agrochemicals leads to a safer and cleaner environment and thus a cleaner climate. The use of local biodiversity to manage a biological challenge put the climate cleaner with less toxic emissions from heavy agrochemical uses
Sustainability
The technology at the onset (registration of the fungal endophytes with PCPB in Kenya) will depend on grant funding and government subsidies. Thereafter, the sales of the enhanced tissues cultured bananas will generate revenues which will sustain the project
Return on investment
The total amount of grants used to develop and implement these activities were United States Dollars 50,000. The results above cannot compare to the initial investments, since the impact is huge.
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Replication and Scale
How could we successfully replicate this solution elsewhere?
These findings can be replicated anywhere in the world where banana production takes place. Trials have been conducted in countries such as Uganda (by IITA). Training in microbiology and basic agricultural skills are required to implement the project. Clean tissue culture banana laboratory is mandatory for the success of the project.