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and soft texture were among the traits that constituted acceptable food. Recently, Batte et al. (2008) reported that the soft texture and yellow colour of the cooked product were the most important sensory parameters determining the acceptability of new banana hybrids to farmers. On the other hand, Akankwasa et al. (2008) reported that taste was an important attribute for accepting a new product, while other studies suggest that in addition to sensory aspects, the nutritional value of the product is important (Ayinde and Adewumi, 2008). For most crops consumer preferences affect the over-all acceptability of new varieties (IRRI, 1985; Janick, 2005). However, consumer qualities are complex traits to breed for (Spillane and Thro, 2000), and success in securing acceptability is not guaranteed. For instance, the NARO banana breeding programme has come up with better yielding, pest and disease resistant materials that have not been accepted by farmers (Nowakunda, personal communication). With the current knowledge of biotechnology and physiology advancing over time, future work should investigate the biosynthetic pathways of important consumer traits such as food colour, aroma, and texture and their relationships; the aim would be to possibly identify molecular markers for such traits to speed up and perfect selection and the breeding process. There is also need to understand the inheritance of consumer quality traits like colour, taste, texture and aroma within Musa species.
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texture, brown food colour, and poor taste. These findings highlight the importance of farmer desired traits in new banana materials. Therefore banana breeders should aim to incorporate the end-user preferred traits if the new materials are to be adopted.
References
Akankwasa, K., J. Mugisha, W. Tushemereirwe, and S. Abele. 2008. Consumer acceptability and willingness to pay for introduced dessert bananas. p. 25. In Banana 2008 abstracts. Banana and plantain in Africa: Harnessing international partnerships to increase research impact, 5-9 October 2008. Leisure Lodge Resort Mombasa, Kenya. IITA, Ibadan, Nigeria.
Ayinde, O.E. and M.O. Adewumi. 2008. Analysis of consumer preferences of banana in Nigeria. p. 24-25. In Banana 2008 abstracts. Banana and plantain in Africa:
Harnessing international partnerships to increase research impact, 5-9 October 2008. Leisure Lodge Resort Mombasa, Kenya. IITA, Ibadan, Nigeria.
Bagamba, F. 2007. Market access and agricultural production: the case of banana production in Uganda. PhD Thesis. Wageningen University, Netherlands. 179pp.
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Katwijukye. 2000. Characterisation of banana production systems in central Uganda. Research report, NARO, Entebbe, Uganda.
Batte, M., P. Tukamuhabwa, M. Pillay, and W. Tushemereirwe. 2008. Sensory qualities and acceptability of East African highland banana derived secondary triploid hybrids. P. 118 In Banana 2008 abstracts. Banana and plantain in Africa:
Harnessing international partnerships to increase research impact, 5-9 October 2008. Leisure Lodge Resort Mombasa, Kenya. IITA, Ibadan, Nigeria.
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Gold, C.S., A. Kiggundu, A.M.K. Abera, and D. Karamura. 2002a. Diversity, distribution and farmer preference of Musa cultivars in Uganda. Experimental Agriculture 38:39-50.
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Gold, C.S., A. Kiggundu, A.M.K. Abera, and D. Karamura. 2002b. Selection criteria of Musa cultivars through a farmer participatory appraisal survey in Uganda.
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Janick, J. 2005. Horticultural plant breeding: past accomplishments, future. Acta- Horticulturae 694:61-65.
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resource access, survival strategies and propensity to adopt technological options. Baseline Draft report. NARO, Entebbe, Uganda.
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NaCRRI (National Crop Resources Research Institute). 2007. Multiplication and promotion of black Sigatoka resistant banana genotypes in Uganda. Report submitted to ProGRA, 1 July 2007. NARO, Entebbe, Uganda.
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Consumer acceptability of introduced bananas in Uganda. Infomusa 9:22-25.
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Tushemereirwe. 2004. Conventional breeding strategies to enhance the sustainability of Musa biodiversity conservation for endemic cultivars. African Crop Science Journal 12:59-66.
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Rutherford, M. and S. Gowen. 2003. Integrated management of banana diseases in Uganda. Final technical report. CABI Bioscience/University of Reading. UK.
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Appendix 2.1. Farmers role in the development of black Sigatoka resistant bananas in Uganda
1. Date of interview ………
2. Name of household head ………..
3. Name of respondent ………..
4. Gender of respondent ………..
5. Age ……….
6. Village ………
7. sub-county ………....
8. Educational level a) none
b) primary c) secondary d) tertiary
9. Reasons for growing bananas
Reason Rank
a) Food ………..
b) Cash ………..
c) Both ………..
d) Other (specify) ………..
10. How many acres of bananas do you have? ………..
11. Mention the major banana constraints
Constraint Rank
a) ………
b) ………
c) ………
d) ………
e) ………....
f) ……….
g) ………
h) ………
i) ……….
12. What do you like about local bananas (agronomic, marketing, utilisation, taste etc) a) ………...
b) ………..
c) ………..
d) ………..
e) ………..
f) ………...
g) ………..
h) ………..
i) ………
13. What don’t you like about local bananas
a) ……….
b) ……….
c) ……….
d) ……….
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e) ……….
f) ………..
14. Do you experience any diseases in your banana plantation? Yes/no 15. Mention the diseases and their symptoms
Disease symptoms
a) ………
b) ……….
c) ……….
d) ……….
e) ……….
16. What is the magnitude of Black sigatoka on a scale of 1-10 (I less important and 10 most important)?
17. Mention the different ways on how you are trying to control the disease Control measure
a) ………..
b) ………..
c) ………..
d) ………..
e) ………
18. Do you have exotic/improved varieties? Yes/no
19. Where did you get them from? ………..
20. Which types do you have?
………
………
………
………
………
21. Farmers use of resistant materials (1-5 scale) 1 less used, 5 mostly used 22. Mention the ways in which the improved varieties are superior to the local ones
………
………
………
………
………
23. If the farmer does not have improved banana varieties, is he/she aware of them?
Yes/No ………..
24. What are the problems associated with improved varieties?
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a) ………..
b) ……….
c) ……….
d) ……….
e) ………..
f) ………..
25. If we are to get new varieties of bananas, what qualities would you want them to have?
Quality Rank
a) ……….
b) ………..
c) ……….
d) ……….
f) ………..
Thank you
77 Chapter three
Appraisal of methods for assessing black Sigatoka resistance in diploid banana populations
Abstract
The effective improvement of banana diploids for black Sigatoka resistance requires identification of a stable, reliable and efficient technique to assess disease damage and predict yield loss due to the disease. Three disease assessment techniques were appraised. These comprised: (i) assessing disease severity 6 months after planting, (ii) estimating disease development over time in the different accessions, and (iii) assessing the youngest leaf spotted (YLS) at flowering. The assessment was implemented on 18 diploid accessions together with susceptible and resistant checks.
The accessions were planted in a 4 x 5 rectangular lattice design with two replicates at Kawanda Agricultural Research Institute in Uganda during 2005 to 2007. Natural disease inoculum was used with experimental plots planted in between the rows of a susceptible local cultivar that acted as a spreader. All the three assessment techniques used were able to classify the Musa accessions into resistant and susceptible classes.
However, the rankings of the clones into resistant and susceptible by the different assessment techniques were not consistent. The rankings of YLS correlated positively with those of area under disease progress curve (AUDPC) (P<0.05). The AUDPC rankings correlated strongly with the rankings of disease development time (P<0.001).
The YLS and AUDPC predicted significantly total leaves at flowering (R2=0.53). Also AUDPC and YLS significantly predicted bunch weight although the coefficient of determination was low. Overall AUDPC resulted in the highest coefficient of determination (R2=0.84) in detecting black Sigatoka response among the diploid Musa clones. Taking into consideration the time involved in maintaining the banana plants up to flowering before disease assessment using YLS, it is recommended that the disease resistance be assessed six months after planting and the disease severity data converted into AUDPC data.
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