PlantVillage Malawi Developing AI Model to Combat Banana Bunchy Top Disease (BBTD)
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A team of PlantVillage research extension officers in Malawi is developing an AI model that’ll be helpful in combating Banana Bunchy Top Disease (BBTV), which has become a menace to farmers in the country.
The officers, who have been monitoring the disease in Thyolo, Lilongwe, and Dedza, have finished collecting images of infected plants to acquire a baseline to train a new model for the banana AI that will be incorporated in the PlantVillage Nuru app, just like it has already been done for other crops such as coffee, banana, cassava, and maize.
The banana AI will assist farmers with timely identification of signs of the disease and help in diagnosis before sending out advice through SMS on how to control the disease.
BBTV, a non-virus disease transmitted over a short distance by banana aphids and over long distances by propagative materials, was first reported in Malawi in 1997 and has of late caused the decline and threatened the extinction of the crop important for food security and household income for smallholder farmers.
The disease causes the plants to not produce fruits but instead develop chlorotic margins with dark green streaks on their petioles and veins. The leaves on the top of the plant appear narrower, upright, and closer together; hence, the plant looks bunchy.
Up to now, no resistant varieties to the disease of the William, giant cavendish, and dwarf cavendish (kabuthu) have been developed, with the only solution being cutting down infected plants.
Zione Bwanali, a farmer in Thyolo district, reported that she noticed that some of her bananas were not increasing in height and the leaves were forming a bunchy appearance.
"At first, I thought it was just a disorder. I waited for them to grow back to normal, but to my surprise, they were not gaining height, but instead the leaves were appearing broom-like," she explained.
PlantVilllage has been helping farmers by creating awareness of the disease and educating them on how to identify it, its mode of transmission, and management practices.
"The Malawian government’s extension workers cut down banana plants affected by BBTV in 2020. Some of us have yet to receive clean suckers. With the coming of PlantVilllage, we will be assured and motivated to grow healthy bananas," Harry Nampota, a lead farmer in Thyolo district, said.
By Chrissy Awali