The cultural practice for banana production in Kenya is to transfer banana suckers from one farm to another, which contributes to the transmission of pests and diseases and significantly reduces banana yields. Banana production in Kenya has been in decline over the last ten years primarily because of crop diseases and pest infestations, as well as environmental degradation.
DuPont is partnering with African Harvest to bring a three-year tissue culture banana project to Chura, a farming community near Nairobi, Kenya. Many of the families in this community face hunger and poverty. The tissue culture program is helping increase farmer incomes, alleviate hunger and poverty and develop agri-based businesses to improve the economy of the community and surrounding areas.
The tissue culture banana project encourages farmers to use clean, disease-free, and insect-free planting materials, such as those from tissue culture propagation. Over the past six years, more than 500,000 resource-poor farmers in Kenya have benefited from tissue culture banana technology transfer. The first banana seedlings in Chura Village were planted in April 2004. This project’s goal is to reach about 6,000 farmers in the community.
Tissue culture technology in Africa has increased banana productivity from 20 to 45 tons per hectare. For the typical Churan family, which can average up to 10 individuals, increased production translates to a climb in income from the current average of US$1 per day, per family to as much as US$3 per day, per family.
Tissue culture propagation is the process of growing tissue culture for plant shoot-tips in a laboratory until they are ready for transplant into the field. Because of the highly controlled starter environment, tissue culture propagation significantly reduces disease and dramatically improves yield when coupled with good agronomic practices she says. In addition, Africa Harvest uses a strategic whole value chain approach with tissue culture banana technology, which includes: awareness creation and information outreach, access to tissue culture banana seedlings, agronomic best practices, post harvest banana fruit handling best practices and linkage to competitive markets.
Tissue culture propagation contrasts with the current African practice of transferring banana suckers between farms. While reflecting a long-standing heritage, this traditional approach increases the risk of transmitting pests and spreading disease among the banana crops.
Bananas were chosen for the tissue culture project because of the crop's ability to provide income for farmers, with small pieces of land, over a prolonged period of time -- usually about 10 years. In Chura, 150,000 tissue culture banana plants have been distributed to date.
In addition to the tissue culture banana project, DuPont is working to educate Kenyan farmers on the use of hybrid seed and the importance of applying the best agronomic practices in maize production. This project includes agronomic and crop management education and training by DuPont subsidiary Pioneer Hi-Bred International, Inc., and provides farmers with access to credit for purchasing inputs.
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