Saving a precious crop: sustainable management of the black Sigatoka disease of banana

Thematic Areas:

Agricultural production

project summary

Black Sigatoka, caused by Mycosphaerella fijiensis, is currently one of the major constraints for production of banana and plantain worldwide, including Sub-Saharan and East Africa where millions of people rely on these crops for daily sustenance. Conventional control strategies include resistance and pesticide use but neither are highly efficient and chemical control is furthermore harmful to the environment. In collaboration with Makarere University in Uganda, University of Copenhagen aims at testing a range of biologically based control agents against the disease. A key element in the protection strategy is to identify and test harmless naturally occurring agents which can stimulate the host plant to defend itself against the disease. Furthermore, the mechanisms by which they reduce disease will be examined. Such studies will increase the understanding of the interaction between host and pathogen and form the basis for understanding and utilising natural resistance against the pathogen efficiently (useful for breeding programmes). In addition, knowledge and methods generated in the current project can form the basis for solving other important disease problems in the area. Results from the project will be disseminated internationally and locally to farmers and their organisations. Furthermore, a commercial business partner will be approached at the end of the project to discuss the prospects for wider use of the findings.

Facts

PERIOD: 1 April 2010 to 31 March 2013
PROJECT CODE: 09-084LIFE
COUNTRIES: Uganda
PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR: David B. Collinge
TOTAL GRANT: 3,166,197 DKK