Kefa Atibuni
8 July 2009
Nebbi — Farmers in Nebbi have been advised to look for healthy planting materials this season following the detection of cassava brown streak disease in the uphill areas of the district. Research Officers from Abi Zonal Agricultural Research Development Institute (Zardi) have also asked farmers to destroy crops infected with the disease.
Cassava Brown Streak Disease (CBSD) is the second most severe constraint to cassava production in eastern Africa after cassava mosaic disease (CMD).
It is a devastating disease that causes quantitative loss of root tuber production and quality. It can render susceptible varieties unusable if cassava tubers are left in the ground for over nine months. The disease is spread both through propagation of infected cassava stems and by a whitefly vector, Bemisia tabaci.
Research Officers detected the disease on June 17 after it had affected about four acres of cassava fields belonging to Odokomit and Canyabuyo farmer groups in Nyapea Sub-county.
"This disease is dangerous and I'm sure it has spread to several cassava growing areas of the district," Mr Jasper Mwesigwa, a plant pathologist with Abi ZARDI said.
He said the solution is to ensure that infected materials are destroyed and there is need for sub county officials to educate farmers on the severity of the disease. Heaps of cassava stems were burned with fuel as it was feared that some farmers would unknowingly pick them for planting.
The farmers claim the infected cassava variety was procured for them by the district from an unknown source. The sub-county production coordinator, Mr Anthony Ocama Jalmoro could neither deny nor confirm the claims.
The researchers claim that several cassava plots along the roadsides in some villages in the sub-county had symptoms akin to the Cassava Brown Streak Disease.
In a region where cassava is the lead food crop many farmers have expressed fears that the disease is most likely to worsen the escalating food shortage. In September last year many farmers in Rhino Camp in Arua District had to destroy several cassava fields after it was discovered that they were infected with the Cassava Brown Streak Disease.
In a report on field assessment trip to the sub-county by Arua's production team and a scientist from Abi Zardi, all the farmers revealed they sourced the planting materials from Gtz-Gopa, an NGO that operates in the district, and therefore it was likely that the planting materials were diseased.
An official working with the NGO in question admitted accessing planting materials to farmers within the sub counties in the Nile valley, and the planting materials were said to have been brought from Mukono District. It remained unclear if the planting materials were clean; given that the said district is one where the incidence of CBSD was first identified in Uganda and severity levels of the disease attack remain high.
Be the first to Write a Comment!
Copyright © 2009 The Monitor. All rights reserved. Distributed by AllAfrica Global Media (allAfrica.com). To contact the copyright holder directly for corrections — or for permission to republish or make other authorized use of this material, click here.
AllAfrica aggregates and indexes content from over 125 African news organizations, plus more than 200 other sources, who are responsible for their own reporting and views. Articles and commentaries that identify allAfrica.com as the publisher are produced or commissioned by AllAfrica.
