Benefits, Costs, and Consumer Perceptions of the Potential Introduction of a Fungus-Resistant Banana in Uganda and Policy Implications

Banana is a staple crop in Uganda. Ugandans have the highest per capita consumption of cooking bananas in the world (Clarke 2003). However, banana production in Uganda is limited by several productivity constraints, such as insects, diseases, soil depletion, and poor agronomic practices. To address these constraints, the country has invested significant resources in research and development (R&D) and other publicly funded programs, pursuing approaches over both the short and long term. Uganda formally initiated its short-term approach in the early 1990s; it involves the collection of both local and foreign germplasms for the evaluation and selection of cultivars tolerant to the productivity constraints. The long-term approach, launched in 1995, includes breeding for resistance to the productivity constraints using conventional breeding methods and genetic engineering. Genetic engineering projects in Uganda target the most popular and infertile cultivars that cannot be improved through conventional (cross) breeding