CURRENT GEOGRAPHICAL DISTRIBUTION OF TWO NATIVE AFRICAN BIOTIC CONSTRAINTS TO MUSA PRODUCTION: XANTHOMONAS WILT OF BANANA AND ENSET, AND SOME NEMATODE SPECIES

Banana planting materials, healthy and diseased, are constantly moved between farms, villages, and ecological zones, and across political borders within Africa. Knowledge of the geographical distribution of pests and diseases is important for the implementation and strengthening of quarantine and other phytosanitary measures to prevent further within-country or trans-border spread. This review examines some of these issues. Within sub-Saharan Africa, key indigenous plant-parasitic nematodes attacking banana and plantain are Helicotylenchus multicinctus, Hoplolaimus pararobustus, and various species of Meloidogyne (root-knot nematodes) and Pratylenchus (lesion nematodes). Xanthomonas wilt of banana and enset (caused by Xanthomonas campestris pv. musacearum), an indigenous African disease, originated in Ethiopia and since 2001, has steadily spread across East and Central Africa but has so far not been found outside the African continent.