Blantyre, Malawi — Banana farmers in Malawi are beginning to recover from over a decade of economic hardship after the banana bunchy top virus, or BBTV, wiped out local banana varieties. 

Africa’s Banana Bunchy Top Disease Alliance said up to 16 countries on the continent have been hit by BBTV, which renders plants unproductive and eventually kills them. The disease leads to yield losses of 70% to 90% in the first season, with subsequent seasons seeing no bananas at all. 

Agriculture experts in Malawi say the virus destroyed the livelihoods of nearly 200,000 farmers in 2016, who were entirely dependent on banana farming.  

Samson Mulenga, one of the affected farmers in Mulanje district in southern Malawi, told VOA the disease wiped out his entire banana production and left him destitute. The retired agriculture extension coordinator said a switch to other crops like cow peas, vegetables and cassava did not earn him as much as he had earned from banana farming.  

But now, he said, the situation is slowly returning to normal because of collaborative programs between the U.N.’s Food and Agriculture Organization and the Malawi government aimed at revamping the banana industry.  

Godfrey Kayira, horticulture specialist for the Ministry of Agriculture in Mulanje district, said that under the Special Agricultural Product and Kulima programs, farmers were advised to get rid of all infected bananas and instead plant a BBTV-free variety. 

“These are the new varieties, but they are also susceptible to disease and can get the disease,” he said. “So, the only way is to manage the disease. That’s why we did some training [for] farmers so that they can manage. But if the varieties are left unmanaged, they can also get affected by the disease and also die.” 

Kayira said farmers were told to plant the new varieties 100 meters away from any banana plantation or orchard, and to immediately uproot and burn any plant showing signs of the disease, which include severe stunting and stumpy shoots.  

However, smallholder farmers say their road to recovery is hindered by an influx of imported bananas from Tanzania and Mozambique.

Those bananas are cheap, but are lower quality, Kayira explained. 

“Mulanje [district] is getting a lot of bananas from Mozambique,” he said. “The challenge is that the bananas from Mulanje, the quality is good compared to those from Mozambique. As a result, the price of the bananas that we have here are much higher than those from Mozambique.”  

Kayira said the situation will normalize once the country’s banana production returns to its former glory.   

Meanwhile, Malawi is also receiving support from the Chinese government, which is carrying out a “School Banana Orchard Establishment” initiative aimed at growing bananas at primary and secondary schools across the country.

In March of this year, the initiative planted more than 100 banana plants at the Chaminade Marianist secondary school in the capital Lilongwe.
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