Banana pests and diseases

Banana yields can be reduced up to 100 percent due to pests and diseases infestation and infection. Pests and diseases are considered the third major determinant of banana yield after agronomic trait of cultivars and soil fertility.

Here are some common pests and diseases that affect bananas: 

1.)  Banana weevil (Cosmopolites sordidus): Weevil infestation has been implicated as one of the factors leading to yield decline of cooking bananas, through prevention of crop establishment and shortened plantation life. Damage to the plant is done by the larvae which tunnel in the rhizome and the yield loss increases with the crop cycle. The destructive effect of the weevil almost occurs simultaneously with the decline in soil fertility.

• Control Measures: Common practices to control weevils are the removal of harvested corms and pseudo stems as a means of denying the pest major breeding sites

2.) Nematodes (radopholus similes): Nematode root rot causes uprooting and lower bunch weight. Surveys have identified that damage is dominantly caused by uprooting than reduced bunch weight.

• Control Measures: Soil fertility management action of mulching with organic wastes could compensate for or suppress nematodes damage by stimulating and improving root growth, increasing populations and activities of beneficial soil organisms antagonistic to the nematodes, or producing nematicidal compounds.
• Alternatively, before planting of banana suckers, they should be 'boiled' in salty water. This is a common practice in Southern Nyanza, in which hot water salt solution is used and the sucker is dipped into the solution for 5 to 10 minutes, killing harmful organisms attached to the roots of the banana suckers.

Proper management of banana plantation is one of the surest ways of ensuring household food security and improved incomes throughout the year.