Building a More Resilient Banana Industry

TechnoServe, in partnership with the Government of Mozambique’s Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security and with funding from the United States Department of Agriculture, is supporting disease-ridden banana farms by providing financial support to affected farmers, through a grant facility, to contain the outbreaks and support prevention measures for future banana crops.

In Mozambique, bananas contribute substantially to the nation’s economy. The country exported
$75 million in bananas in 2015, making it one of the largest exporters of banana in Africa. Like in many other African countries, bananas also make an important staple in the national Mozambican diet. For the past few years, the Mozambican Banana Industry has been facing two major threats to its viability: Panama Disease Tropical Race 4 (TR4) and Banana Bunch Top Virus (BBTV). The outbreaks of these two diseases has threatened the existence and viability of many commercial banana plantations and smallholder production. TechnoServe, in partnership with the Government of Mozambique’s Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security
and with funding from the United States Department of Agriculture, is supporting affected banana plantations and communities by providing financial support through a grant facility to contain the outbreaks and support prevention measures.

• Prevention, Containment or Replanting grants are used to implement activities to prevent and contain infestation of the banana diseases or to restore the economic potential by replanting areas that have been destructed due to infection.
• Research grants are used to support important research on topics ranging from finding tolerant banana varieties to developing testing kits to establishing the socio-economic impact banana diseases have on communities across Mozambique.

By testing and licensing resistant varieties, building fences around farms and establishing monitoring systems, the Banana Industry Grants Facility is enabling the Mozambican banana industry  to combat the current Panama Disease and BBTV outbreaks and prevent further contamination. In addition to decreasing the impact of the current disease outbreaks in Mozambique’s banana sector, the program will also help to make the banana industry more sustainable and competitive by equipping the sector to detect and avoid these diseases in the future.

For more information, please visit: www.bananamoz.org