Gene technology pioneered by Dr. Teng-Yung Feng, emeritus faculty member of the Institute of Plant and Microbial Biology (IPMB) is seen by scientists in Uganda as the most feasible solution to a banana-wilt disease ravaging Uganda’s banana crops. Using technology licensed to the African Agricultural Technology Foundation (AATF) by Academia Sinica, development of wilt-resistant bananas has now progressed to the stage of confined field-crop testing and is showing promise.

        Bananas are the staple food of Uganda and the country's second largest cash-crop after coffee. However, in recent years, a devastating bacterial disease has spread across the nation destroying an estimated 30% of the nation's annual banana crop. The disease is endangering the livelihoods of the nations' farmers, 75% of who grow bananas, and threatening an important food source in one of the poorest nations in the world. The disease, named Xanthomonas wilt (BXW), can wipe out a whole plantation in a year, destroying bananas and contaminating the soil. BXW was originally found in Ethiopia, but in 2001 it was detected in Uganda, from where it rapidly spread across the whole region into Democratic Republic of Congo, Rwanda, Kenya, Tanzania and Burundi. Damage caused by BXW is now estimated to cost farmers in the region half a million US dollars per year.

        In 2001 Dr. Feng and his colleagues at the IPMB found that a gene isolated from the sweet pepper plant could protect plants from BXW. The gene produces a protein called Hypersensitive Response Assisting Protein (HRAP). They transplanted and tested the gene in several plants, including potatoes, tomatoes and rice, and published their results in the journal Plant Molecular Biology and several other journals. In 2006, Academia Sinica gave the HRAP gene and another anti-bacteria gene Plant Ferredoxin-Like Protein (PFLP), royalty-free, to the African Agricultural Technology Foundation (AATF). AATF is a not-for-profit organization that promotes public/private partnerships for the access of agricultural technologies for use by smallholder farmers in Sub-Saharan Africa. AATF used the technology in the “Banana Bacterial Wilt Resistance” project in collaboration with the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA) and the Uganda National Agricultural Research System (NARS). Bananas carrying the wilt-resistant gene were successfully developed,  and confined field trials were started in October 2010.

        Since conventional methods of combating crop diseases, including selective breeding of resistant strains, have not been successful, the genetically modified bananas are seen by scientists at the National Banana Research Program, the research arm of Uganda's NARS, as the most promising solution to the current nation crisis in banana cultivation. The project still has several hurdles to overcome, however, as free growing of genetically modified crops remains illegal in Uganda. The efforts to overcome BXW in Uganda have been featured by several prominent international media outlets in recent months such as Nature News (http://www.nature.com/news/2010/101001/full/news.2010.509.html) and CNN World (http://articles.cnn.com/2011-03-22/world/uganda.banana.gm_1_banana-harvest-banana-plant-gm-crops?_s=PM:WORLD).

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