Tissue-culture farming spurs banana yields

By Eric Lungai

Vihiga, Kenya: An initial 20,000 farmers in Vihiga County are expected to benefit from suckers for tissue-culture banana farming worth Sh10 million starting next month.

The farmers will undergo various trainings on how to benefit from tissue-culture farming before they are given the suckers.

County Executive Committee Member in charge of Agriculture, Sande Mukuna, said they are preparing the suckers in seed beds.

“We are slowly inculcating our farmers into a culture of creating food for sustainable development for the county’s posterity. We do not want to be over reliant on other counties for food every year,” Mukuna said.

He said the county is partnering with Jomo Kenyatta University of science and Technology (JKUAT), which is going to provide the suckers.

So far, 50,000 suckers have been brought to Kaimosi where they are being treated before they are officially given to the farmers.

Disease-free plantlets

“Banana farmers are faced with devastating pests and diseases that affect their crop, the alternative option is disease-free plantlets developed through tissue culture.  Tissue culture is a biotechnology technique used to breed planting material, which are free of pest and diseases,” Mukuna said.

He said the technique is a tool that can be used to multiply seedlings at a much faster rate and in a less bulky package with lots of returns to the farmers.  

“Tissue culture has been shown to bring down the cost of controlling foliar diseases by half. Once the new banana plantlets sprout, they are nurtured in the laboratory for a couple of weeks or so before being taken to a greenhouse for further growth,” he said.

Make profits

He said farmers will be given two suckers each to start as plans are underway to increase the number in the future.

Prior to tissue culture banana farming, farmers used suckers from the mother-plant to propagate their crop, which is increasingly becoming out-dated with the onset of modern technology.

Now, farmers who venture into banana farming may finally begin reaping more compared to other fruit farmers since banana production is all year round.

Mukuna said the introduction of bananas in the county was done to urge residents to change their eating habits from over dependence on maize and shift to other foods for food security reasons.

The region is highly dependent on maize which is viewed as a staple food although residents have tiny farms which can hardly produce enough food for a single household throughout the year.

“The small land parcels in the area hinder production of maize on a large scale therefore, if individuals can venture into growing alternative plants like bananas, it will help curb recurrent hunger,” Mukuna said.

Mukuna said the area experiences adequate rainfall which, if well utilised, can lead to bumper harvests.