In Tanzania’s Morogoro district, a science journalist’s trained eye recently caught the early signs of a destructive banana disease, highlighting a growing effort to link media professionals with agricultural researchers.
Ashton Balaigwa, a science journalist, noticed banana plants on a farm in Kauzeni village wilting and turning brown.
Recognizing the symptoms from previous training, he photographed the plants and shared the images in a WhatsApp group that connects journalists with agricultural scientists.
The responses suggested a possible outbreak of banana bunchy top virus (BBTV), a disease that can severely stunt plants and cut fruit production by 90 to 100 per cent within two seasons.
BBTV is spread by the banana aphid Pentalonia nigronervosa and through infected planting material.
The disease was first detected in Tanzania between December 2020 and January 2021, according to a 2022 study, and threatens food security across Sub-Saharan Africa, where bananas are a staple food and cash crop.
Balaigwa returned to the farm and advised the owners to act quickly, sharing scientists’ recommendations to remove affected plants and sanitize farming tools. “You need to act fast before it spreads further,” he recalled telling the farmers.
Deogratius Protas, principal research coordination officer at the Tanzania Commission for Science and Technology (COSTECH), said the intervention helped stop the spread of the disease.
Protas was among those who trained 27 journalists in Tanzania, including Balaigwa, to improve science reporting for community development. The training followed the 2021 BBTV outbreak in Tanzania, which prompted scientists and partners to raise awareness about the disease.
“When journalists are empowered to spot symptoms and verify them directly with scientists in real time, it becomes easier to raise public awareness, reassure farming communities, and support immediate mitigation measures,” Protas told SciDev.Net.
For farmers already affected, awareness is only part of the challenge. Kosa Kondo, a farmer from Mzinga ward in Morogoro district, said BBTV had sharply reduced his banana production.
“After every three months, I would reap up to 30 to 40 banana trees, but currently, due to the disease, I can only afford a banana plant for my family to feed on, not for business,” Kondo said.
Kondo also noted the difficulty of finding disease-free planting material. After his farm was affected, he decided to stop growing bananas temporarily and plant beans instead.
“I have planted beans and am waiting. After some years, I want to restart bananas after getting seeds that have no problems and in soil that is not yet affected,” he said.
Hosea Mtui, a researcher and lecturer in the department of crop science and horticulture at Sokoine University of Agriculture, said combining scientific research with media-driven awareness gives smallholder farmers a better chance of responding to the disease.
“This approach is immensely important to Tanzanian farmers because it connects scientific knowledge on the ecology of the banana aphid, the vector of banana bunchy top virus, directly to practical guidance in the field,” Mtui explained.
“Implementing integrated management strategies based on this science allows farming communities to reduce disease spread, lower production costs, improve overall banana yield and quality, protect treasured local banana cultivars, and ultimately safeguard household income and national food security.”
Source: Sub-Saharan Africa