Modern lab where top grade tissue culture bananas are nurtured

Joyce Macharia 36 year old farmer at tissue culture banana Secondary Hardening stage. She explains that strict adherence to aseptic standards and micro-climatic conditions and care during the hardening process results into successful seedling production at the nursery. PHOTO BY MERCY KAHENDA

With more farmers embracing the high yielding tissue-culture bananas, demand for its seedlings has gone up.

Enter Joyce Macharia, 36, a biochemist from Ngata in Nakuru County. Armed with vast knowledge and experience in plant science, Macharia developed China Kenya Laboratory, an industrial laboratory to supply farmers with disease-resistant, fast maturing and high yielding tissue-culture banana seedlings.

Established in 2012, the laboratory has the capacity to produce 150,000 plant-lets annually. Her aim, she says, is to provide top of the grade banana seedlings that guarantee better returns to farmers.

“The traditional practice in banana farming is the use of overgrown banana suckers. These suckers are, however, not highly productive because they could easily be infested with diseases. My goal is to supply clean seedlings to enhance yields,” says Macharia.

At her laboratory, the plant-lets undergo three stages of tissue culture production - initiation, multiplication and rooting.

At the initiation stage, a sucker is plucked from a mother plant and sterilised. Its outer leaves are then removed to expose the meristem, which is then boiled and placed in an autoclave pressure steriliser machine for four weeks. At this stage, the plant-let develops shoots.

From here, the tissue is placed into a multiplication room for four weeks. The room is installed with adequate lighting to provide warmth, with the temperatures maintained at between 28 and 30 degrees.

At this stage, the tissue has to be monitored closely to ensure it develops into a high quality plant-let.

After initiation, the tissue is moved to a growth room where a single tissue is subdivided and cultured to produce as as many plant-lets as desired. This stage takes approximately four weeks.

The tissue is later moved to rooting stage where the roots are placed on a rooting medium for one month. Here, the shoots are induced to form roots and provide banana plant-lets.

“Production of plant-lets in the laboratory takes at least six months and at most a year depending on the desired number,” says Macharia.

China Kenya Laboratory produces about 5,000 plant-lets weekly. Grand Nain, Kisii Ng’ombe Giant Dwarf, Williams, Chinese Carendish, Uganda Green, FHIA 17 and FHIA18 are some of the varieties produced here.

Macharia also runs a nursery adjacent to the laboratory where she undertakes primary and secondary hardening of the plant-lets for even germination.

Primary hardening is done in green houses while secondary hardening is carried out in shade houses. Here, Macharia says, strict adherence to aseptic standards, micro-climatic conditions and care is of paramount importance for high quality tissue-culture plant-lets.

The tissues are exposed to regulated temperatures at primary hardening. They are then left in normal climate before they are transplanted.

The plant-lets are normally ready for transplanting as soon as they attain a height of 12 feet.

Macharia says seedling production is high between April and October due to sufficient rains ideal for even germination.

Each seedling is sold at between Sh70 and Sh120 depending on the variety. The seedlings, which are certified by the Kenya Bureau of Standards (Kebs) attract customers from across the country, but most of her clients come from Kisii and Thika.

William Kurere is one such farmer. Kurere grows the William and FHIA-17 varieties in Mogotio, varieties he says are highly productive despite erratic rains in the area.

“I was inspired into banana production five months ago by other farmers who had tried seedlings from the Chuna Kenya Laboratory. I wanted to be part of the success story,” says Kurere.

He expects to harvest 2,400 bunches of bananas from his one acre-farm in August. Depending on the market, Kurere expects to sell each of the bunches at between Sh800 and Sh1,000.

Macharia plans to venture into other crops, especially horticultural crops, to provide an alternative certified seeds to farmers facing climate challenges.