The East African highland cooking banana (Musa spp.) is a major food security and non-traditional income generation crop in rural and urban areas of the South Western Agro-Ecological Zone (SWAEZ) of Uganda. Being a perennial crop, the vulnerability of banana to the evolving abiotic and biotic stresses is increasing in this major production region. During the late 2000s, the SWAEZ experienced wide-spread and severe banana Xanthomonas wilt (BXW) disease epidemics, which caused 70% - 100% crop and/or yield losses. Through various partnerships, the government of Uganda applied the integrated approaches to provide the needed technical, policy, legal and financial support to rapidly eradicate the disease, strengthen the farmers’ capacities to prevent further plant infections and spread of the “Xanthomonas vasicola pv., musacearum (XVM)” pathogen. Research has shown that the comprehensive and collective action, which focused on rapidly eliminating BXW, reduced the disease prevalence to ＜5%, but ten years after the eradication campaign, BXW is persistent in SWAEZ. A study carried out in five districts to assess farmers’ knowledge and perception about the BXW control 10 years after the epidemics, found that the disease incidences continue to gradually rise, as efforts to control it continue to decline, which makes the zone prone to another serious epidemic if strong measures are not enforced. Given the knowledge and skills previously imparted to farmers, banana productivity and production for food and income generation have been gradually increasing; livelihoods that are highly dependent on banana have improved and crop production has been diversified in some areas. However, because of the decline in the government’s effort to continue sensitizing, monitoring and enforcing by-laws, the disease inoculum continues to build up and spread. While the majority of the household respondents agreed that the recommended disease control technology packages were very effective, they were also expensive (in terms of labour and non-labour inputs), and too difficult to be applied by the weak and vulnerable community members (females, children, elderly people, sick and other disabled community members). The farmers attributed the disease persistence in the zone to poor monitoring, ineffective use of the recommended disease management technology packages, increased disease pathogen inoculum in abandoned plantations, use of infected planting materials and unsterilized field tools. Therefore, in order to completely mitigate BXW from the SWAEZ, this study recommends that the government reinstate regular awareness creation campaigns, training, and functional BXW eradication task-forces in the banana-producing communities to ensure timely and effective disease control.
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