Discussion

From Biosecwiki

Quarantine/surveillance

• The term quarantine applies to areas which haven’t already got a problem. “Quarantine” or “restriction” are interchangeable. Border controils are not effective.

• Quarantine or restrictions are best where locally enforced. Prevent traders with pangas coming on your farm; “manage” relatives at weddings, and rely on community policing. Local control strategies can take advantage of peer pressure; fines can be applied in line with local bye laws; the process of levying fines is in fact a form of local surveillance.

• There is a need to understand transmission mechanism if quarantine/restriction is to be effective. What to restrict? plant materials? bananas?

• Where bananas are a significant crop in the district, stopping sale of bananas from infected farm is a real/effective threat; high production areas have specified transport routes (even road blocks can be applied by police). In areas where banana is less important, incentives are harder to find.

• In drawing up byelaws, either use the MAAIF template for local bye laws or consult locally on what measures the community wants to apply (to take account of different relative importance attached to banana in different districts. Bye laws are not really phytosanitary but local community “nuisance” regulations (like polluting water sources; setting fires, etc). PPA allows for removal of affected plants (in Uganda)

• As well as (before) enforcing bye laws to prevent movement, there needs to be sensitisation of farmers.

• Surveillance – there are two kinds (i) routine surveillance to establish baseline (regular surveillance, quarterly monitoring – when was the last outbreak as per Uganda map), and (ii) early identification of hot spots for eradication (with information sources volunteering information, extension, etc; going public response in market places)

• Collect data at central point, map data feedback, validate. Be clear on the objectives of surveillance.

• How informed are farmers? Would they recognise BBW? BBTV??

• Phone hotlines – there were two, one MAAIF and one NARO - took calls, trained to ask in minimum airtime where caller is located, what symptoms they have (classic ones, uneven ripening, yellow ooze, etc); farmers perception may just be that there is something strange in the field.

• Is there a tendency to hide if there are fines for not eradicating? Not easy to hide in a village!

• There are 400 sub-counties – estimated full monitoring surveillance cost would be considered prohibitive at 4Bn Ush a year. (~$2m)

• Link between surveillance and motivation to report (need to understand what you’re losing and what might be gained by reporting). If report results in destruction, then give farmers seeds or planting material (in Tz, also later in Rw).

• Why is resurgence happening – in areas where the disease has been brought down? Farmers are relaxing, or may have problems in the family, etc; the extension service may be less effective; maybe the messages need to change; the package of control measures has evolved over time. Need to update extension messages

• To do surveillance, everybody needs to know who and how to report – a coordinated network with NARO/MAAIF hotlines. Once reported, confirm and inform the control process operating locally.

Socioeconomics

• Surveys needed to establish status of livelihood plus biological data (disease)

• What is the baseline (how much banana production, where and how badly affected, and how much impact the disease is having on livelihoods)

• How are affected farmers coping – switch to even risky crops such as cassava and maize (C. Uganda). Where gardens were wiped out gave quick maturing crop, until banana could be replanted.

• Banana/ livestock in competition. Livestock holders buy BXW affected land abandoned for bananas cheap!

• Understanding of impact of BXW on nutritional status; impact on markets and secondary services such as traders and transport

• Some communities grew beer bananas (is more susceptible) no mother gardens for beer variety, and no incentive to uproot – beer is also an income source. Beer may even be more at risk as labour is more often paid, and so tools move from plantation to plantation

• Livelihood assessments are not needed every year, but to establish a baseline

• Baseline data is coming from many sources, could it not be pooled – often gathered for different purposes. Level/sophistication of data needs to be appropriate for decision making. Need to know what questions you are going to ask before deciding what data items to collect. In some cases project data is not made accessible in timely fashion or with total transparency (project scientists want to publish)

• Use panels where they exist to monitor at household level (ICRAF).

• Preferences in C. Uganda (i) sweet cassava – preferred as edible roots but more susceptible,

(ii) bitter cassava – regarded as less palatable (needs to be converted to flour) edible but varieties are less susceptible to disease. It took time but eventually root eaters switched to flour - similar switches may happen where banana is no longer grown.

Extension

• Kenya extension operates by focal areas (where district with a specific problem becomes centre of extension effort for a year) and common interest groups; otherwise textbook answers on Tanzania.

• Extension is a private sector responsibility for some crops - such as cotton, coffee, tea.

• Extension staff budgets are a problem, particularly fuel, etc. Funds do not always reach the frontline staff.

• How many district/sub county extension officers have e-mail - Uganda (70 out of 175); ratio of extension to farm household Tanzania 1:2000

Disease control

• Mara District, Tanzania experience BXW over 100 sq miles - mobilised the district disaster management committee (general). But caution: large scale untrained task forces in uprooting can cause more damage than good.

• Local task forces in Mbarara, but with the same membership as the disaster management committee.

• Men came to meetings/women do the work for control of disease (is a general point).

• How to get quick response and control. Speed essential - "by the time symptoms are widely visible, it is too late"

• How much assessment is needed? View site, see district leaders, apply byelaws or decide collective approach to control. Uproot rapidly (decide strategy to follow – all in a certain radius; all; only obviously affected plants); mobilise and sensitise

• What is the basic control package minimum:

- remove male buds - uproot infected - no tools for work on plants other than uprooting - no inter cropping - no outside pangas on farm

• Once task force is created, task forces should go round weekly eg Saturday afternoons, and check (and apply fines). Farmers should observe daily.

• Example from Muleba District, Tanzania – 18 person control/enforcement team arrived at village which had not responded; men were out fishing women at home; no response; district commissioner arrested women and held over night; next day all diseased plants were uprooted

• Who does the control will depend on the magnitude of the problem.

Planting materials

• Uganda has a private company doing tissue culture materials (although there is no QA)

• Farmers take clean materials – no nematode, no weevils - and create ‘mother garden’.

• MAAIF: Banana clean planting material – clean tissue culture plant to create mother gardens, raised by farmer groups. In some cases farmer associations have multiplied (Mukono + 2 others in Uganda); extension staff go and monitor to ensure it is still clean (how?)

• Price Ush 1,000 – ministry figure; (5,000 according to Mbarara, Uganda) - $0.5-$2.5 per plantlet

• Quality/certification schemes needed (but even European countries can’t always achieve this)

• Is macro-propagate cheaper than micro propagation. Big producers all use micro-propagation and it is cost-effective. DRC is creating 10 macropropagation sites (serving 500 farmers each); each site costs $300 to set up. Mother gardens, can get 12 suckers a year per plant; 50 from macropropagation. Mother gardens run by farmers groups, NAADS, FFS could also.