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The International Musa Testing Programme |
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The International Musa Testing Programme (IMTP) is a collaborative effort coordinated by Bioversity International to evaluate, in various locations around the world, elite Musa varieties produced by breeding programmes as well as promising germplasm from the International Musa Germplasm Collection in Leuven, Belgium. Its aim is to identify banana and plantain hybrids, that, in addition to being resistant to the main pests and diseases that affect banana production, also meet local requirements. |
Phase I – The programme was set up in 1989 to evaluate material developed by the banana breeding programme of the Fundación Hondureña de Investigación Agrícola (FHIA) in Honduras. Seven tetraploid hybrids were tested for their resistance to black leaf streak (better known as black Sigatoka) alongside diploid reference clones representing the whole range of reaction from highly resistant to highly susceptible. The experiments were established in six countries.
Four years later, the recommendation was made to release three clones for distribution: FHIA-01 and FHIA-02, both dessert banana varieties with outstanding agronomic performance and high resistance to black leaf streak, and FHIA-03, a cooking banana that also performed well. These three clones have since been distributed to more than 50 countries worldwide.
Phase II – The second phase of IMTP started in 1996. The germplasm was evaluated for resistance to three diseases: black leaf streak, Sigatoka disease (also known as yellow Sigatoka) and fusarium wilt. Four programmes (FHIA in Honduras; EMBRAPA in Brazil; the Instituto de Investigaciones en Viandas Tropicales (INIVIT) in Cuba; and the Taiwan Banana Research Institute (TBRI) in Taiwan) contributed germplasm and the number of testing sites increased from 6 to 37, despite the fact that the trials were financed at the participating institutes' own expense.
The results suggested that, among the different materials tested, FHIA-23 and SH-3436-9 were the most tolerant to black leaf streak. The improved hybrid with the best overall performance was FHIA-23. An improved cultivar that deserves special mention is GCTCV-119, which had the lowest discoloration score for both Foc races and good yields under good management.
Phase III – At the moment, 18 countries are participating in phase III, to which five breeding programmes contributed germplasm (FHIA in Honduras; the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA) in Uganda and Nigeria; TBRI in Taiwan; the Centre africain de recherches sur bananiers et plantains (CARBAP) in Cameroon; and the Centre de coopération internationale en recherche agronomique pour le développement (CIRAD) in Guadeloupe). The evaluation guidelines were modified: for the first time, some partners carried out in-depth studies that involved epidemiological and ecological research, while the others undertook simplified performance trials against specific diseases. A standard procedure for data management and statistical analysis was also developed.
Note: All germplasm movement, both into the region from outside and between countries in the region, is carried out according to the FAO/IPGRI Guidelines for the Safe Movement of Musa Germplasm. |
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