Awareness creation meeting on BBTD: presentation of response plan against BBTD

Plantain is one of the most important food crops, contributing 16% of farmers' incomes and 4.5% to agricultural GDP in Cameroon. It is one of the priority crops included in Cameroon's development strategy (SND30) for increasing production and reducing importation. However, plantain cultivation faces banana bunchy top disease (BBTD) caused by the banana bunchy top virus (BBTV), which is spread by the banana aphid and infected planting material.

In Cameroon, BBTD was reported in 2008 and confined to a single district at the border with Gabon. Although the infection was limited to this district from 2008 to 2022, BBTD is insidiously spreading to the north of the country, and this spread is usually through infected plant materials by human movement, constituting a significant threat to the development of the plantain sector. IITA-CGIAR Virologist and member of the ALLIANCE against BBTV initiative, Lava Kumar, acknowledged funding from CGIAR for combating BBTV in Africa from 2012 to 2021 through the CRP-RTB Program and from 2022 onwards through the CGIAR Plant Health Initiative. He said the CGIAR Trust Fund donor's support enabled emergency response actions, development, and transfer of innovations to partners.

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