Improved Varieties of Banana for the African Highlands

Cultivate superior banana varieties for abundant yields and enhanced food security.

These disease-resistant hybrid banana varieties are characterized by their robust and compact bunches, bearing larger and heavier fruits compared to conventional cultivars. Among these hybrids, TARIBAN2 stands out for its exceptional sturdiness, effectively reducing vulnerability to wind damage. Moreover, these cultivars produce distinct sword-like leaves and have fewer suckers, except TARIBAN3. This technology provides a reliable and resilient alternative to traditional varieties, ensuring higher yields and increased food security. Additionally, these varieties exhibit notable resilience to black leaf streak, nematodes, and bunchy top disease, further bolstering their capacity to deliver consistent and dependable yields.

This technology is TAAT1 validated.

8•8

Scaling readiness: idea maturity 8/9; level of use 8/9

Adults 18 and over: Positive high

The poor: Positive high

Under 18: Positive medium

Women: Positive high

Climate adaptability: Highly adaptable

Farmer climate change readiness: Significant improvement

Biodiversity: No impact on biodiversity

Carbon footprint: Same amount of carbon released

Environmental health: Greatly improves environmental health

Soil quality: Does not affect soil health and fertility

Water use: Same amount of water used

Problem

Low Banana Yields: Traditional varieties yield only 5-30 tons per hectare, primarily due to susceptibility to pests and diseases.
Susceptibility to Pests and Diseases: Vulnerability to black leaf streak, nematodes, and bunchy top disease leads to lower yields in conventional varieties.
Declining Soil Fertility: Inadequate soil fertility hampers banana production, posing a challenge for traditional varieties.
Risk of Plant Die-Off in Plantations: Factors such as pests, diseases, and environmental stressors increase the likelihood of plant die-off, jeopardizing food security.

Solution

Enhanced Yield Potential: Disease-resistant hybrids can yield up to 70 tons per hectare, significantly increasing productivity compared to traditional varieties.
Heightened Disease Resistance: These varieties are specifically bred to resist black leaf streaks, nematodes, and bunchy top disease, ensuring a more robust and reliable yield.
Improved Soil Resilience: Disease-resistant hybrids exhibit greater resilience in nutrient-depleted soils, reducing the impact of declining soil fertility on banana production.
Strengthened Plant Health and Survival: By being resistant to pests and diseases, the disease-resistant hybrids significantly reduce the risk of plant die-off in banana plantations, thereby enhancing food security.

Key points to design your program

Improved Banana Varieties for the African Highlands (NARITA hybrids) help restore banana productivity by replacing traditional varieties that are highly susceptible to pests, diseases, declining soil fertility, and drought. The technology provides high-yielding, disease-resistant hybrids that improve yield stability, strengthen household food security, and reduce the risk of crop failure across diverse production environments. It is well suited for food security, nutrition, and sustainable agricultural development programmes, contributing to SDGs 1 (No Poverty), 2 (Zero Hunger), and 3 (Good Health and Well-being). The technology also creates opportunities for women and youth through nursery enterprises, quality planting material production, and improved participation in banana value chains. To successfully integrate this technology, consider the following key actions:

Identify priority banana-growing areas where pests, diseases, declining soil fertility, and drought significantly constrain productivity and household food security.
Establish partnerships with national agricultural research institutions, breeding programmes, extension services, tissue culture laboratories, nursery operators, and farmer organizations to support the multiplication, dissemination, and local adaptation of improved banana varieties.
Strengthen access to quality planting materials by supporting tissue culture laboratories, certified nurseries, disease-free sucker production systems, and efficient distribution networks.
Promote integrated banana production by combining improved varieties with good soil fertility management, recommended agronomic practices, and effective pest and disease management.
Train extension agents, nursery operators, and farmers on nursery management, macro-propagation, planting material management, and recommended crop husbandry practices.
Establish demonstration plots and farmer learning activities to showcase the performance of improved varieties under different agroecological conditions and encourage technology adoption.
Promote equitable access for women, youth, and smallholder farmers through targeted distribution of planting materials, technical training, and support for nursery-based enterprises.
Monitor programme performance through indicators such as certified planting material production and distribution, adoption rates, banana productivity, disease incidence, and the participation of women and youth.

670—3300 USD

per hectare for inputs

700—1300 USD

per hectare for labor

IP

Open source / open access

Scaling Readiness describes how complete a technology\’s development is and its ability to be scaled. It produces a score that measures a technology\’s readiness along two axes: the level of maturity of the idea itself, and the level to which the technology has been used so far.

Each axis goes from 0 to 9 where 9 is the “ready-to-scale” status. For each technology profile in the e-catalogs we have documented the scaling readiness status from evidence given by the technology providers. The e-catalogs only showcase technologies for which the scaling readiness score is at least 8 for maturity of the idea and 7 for the level of use.

The graph below represents visually the scaling readiness status for this technology, you can see the label of each level by hovering your mouse cursor on the number.

Scaling readiness score of this technology

Maturity of the idea 8 out of 9

Uncontrolled environment: tested

Level of use 8 out of 9

Used by some intended users, in the real world

Maturity of the idea										Level of use
9
8
7
6
5
4
3
2
1
	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9

Countries with a green colour: Tested & adopted
Countries with a bright green colour: Adopted
Countries with a yellow colour: Tested
Countries with a blue colour: Testing ongoing

Countries where the technology is being tested or has been tested and adopted
Country	Testing ongoing	Tested	Adopted
Burundi	–No ongoing testing	–Not tested	Adopted
Cameroon	–No ongoing testing	–Not tested	Adopted
Democratic Republic of the Congo	–No ongoing testing	–Not tested	Adopted
Ethiopia	–No ongoing testing	–Not tested	Adopted
Malawi	–No ongoing testing	–Not tested	Adopted
Rwanda	–No ongoing testing	–Not tested	Adopted
South Sudan	–No ongoing testing	–Not tested	Adopted
Tanzania	–No ongoing testing	–Not tested	Adopted
Uganda	–No ongoing testing	–Not tested	Adopted

This technology can be used in the colored agro-ecological zones. Any zones shown in white are not suitable for this technology.

Agro-ecological zones where this technology can be used
AEZ	Subtropic - warm	Subtropic - cool	Tropic - warm	Tropic - cool
Arid
Semiarid
Subhumid
Humid

Source: HarvestChoice/IFPRI 2009

The United Nations Sustainable Development Goals that are applicable to this technology.

Goal 2: zero hunger

Goal 3: good health and well-being

Goal 1: no poverty

Obtain Planting Material: Acquire disease-resistant hybrid banana planting material from designated private laboratories or research institutes.
Prepare Soil and Space Appropriately: Plant in well-prepared soil, ensuring optimal spacing and stand management.
Provide Nutrient Inputs: Provide balanced nutrient inputs, including animal manure and synthetic fertilizer.
Monitor and Address Plant Health: Monitor plant health and promptly address any signs of pests or diseases.