Burundi: Bacterial wilt ravages banana plantations (by Désiré
Nshimirimana for Farm Radio Weekly in Burundi) Date Posted:
September 12th, 2011 Dried yellow leaves and wilting, stunted
trees are scattered through the banana plantations near Ruyigi,
in eastern Burundi. Calinie Cimpaye is a farmer from nearby
Mubavu. She describes how banana wilt affected her bananas: “To
start with, the leaves turned yellow. Then the plant wilted. I
thought … that it would soon pass, but in a few days the
neighbour’s plants had been attacked too.” Bananas are a staple
food in Burundi. But banana plantations are suffering. The
problem has been identified as banana bacterial wilt, or
Xanthomonas wilt, often called BXW for short. The disease is new
to producers in Burundi. Witnesses say it first appeared in
November 2010. Farmers feel powerless to respond to what they
call the “AIDS of the banana.” Nicolas Niko is a researcher at
the Burundi Institute of Agricultural Sciences who has been
studying the disease. He remembers, “We id