When a virus attacked the banana farms of smallhold farmers in the northern part of the country sometime in the past, the result was no more than devastation -- of livelihood and of hope.

Banana is one of the major commodities in the country, as a major fresh fruit and processed product export. In the domestic milieu, it has been with the Filipino family's diet, eaten raw for snack or dessert, or as poor man's substitute to rice.

Although Mindanao is the largest producer and exporter of banana in the country, Luzon has its share of producing bananas such as latundan, bungulan, lacatan, saba supplying the National Capital Region and other parts of the country.

In the 1950s and 1960s, a disease called banana bunchy top virus (BBTV) destroyed both small-scale banana farms and large banana plantations. The larger plantations fairly fought off the spread of the virus.

But the most devastating blow was received by the small-scale banana farmers in Luzon because they could not grow lacatan anymore.

The BBTV has "spread rather slowly and unevenly," which led to the closure of the farms or switching to other crop farming.

In a BBTV infection, if the mother plant is infected by the virus, the disease will be distributed to its offspring. It is risky, however, since BBTV does not show any sign of infection among banana plants.

"The infestation of the crop is much less obvious with its first symptoms seen only during the plant's next growing cycle, when the sucker, to replace the mother plant, emerges severely stunted," explained the International Network for the Improvement of Banana and Plantain (INIBAP).

Because of this, the maintenance of the banana germplasm has become a problem with ill production of bananas that led to economic loss, especially among the small-scale banana farmers in the north.

And since the farmers in Luzon cannot grow lacatan, the demand for this sweet tasting banana variety is supplied mainly by multinational companies from Mindanao.

INIBAP, a program of the International Plant Genetic Resources Institute involved in the conservation and use of plant genetic diversity, aims to increase the productivity and stability of banana and plantain (cooking banana) grown on smallholdings for domestic consumption and for local and export markets worldwide.

Dr. Agustin Molina, INIBAP regional coordinator for Asia and the Pacific, explained that one of the mandates of INIBAP is to increase the cultivar diversity of banana varieties worldwide.

Given the BBTV outbreak situation in the Philippines, INIBAP decided to focus on its International Musa Testing Program (IMTP).

IMTP has been going on in the country since 1995, with improved hybrids being made available to scientists for testing under local conditions. The results of the trials are used as a basis to propagate healthy and disease-free Musa varieties for evaluation and adoption by banana farmers.

However, dissemination of the tested varieties is not readily available to farmers, especially to small-scale banana farmers. After the evaluation of the potentials of the IMTP varieties, no distribution happens. And reasonably so, there is no institution in the country that deals with the multiplication and distribution of banana varieties.

"Although these tested varieties have been here since 1995, we don't actually see them being made available to our farmers," Mr. Molina noted.

In 1999, under then Agriculture Secretary Edgardo Angara, the country renewed its contribution to the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR) under restricted funding, meaning projects where the funds will be spent are strictly specified.

This was endorsed to CGIAR by the Department of Agriculture-Bureau of Agricultural Research (DA-BAR), the central body for agricultural research and development (R&D) that deals with all agriculture R&D ventures. Thus, CGIAR tried to identify possible projects on banana and proposed it to DA-BAR.

The collaborative project, titled "Introduction, Evaluation, and Adoption of Improved Land Races of Banana for Food and Income Alleviation," among DA-BAR, INIBAP, DA-Bureau of Plant Industry (BPI), and University of the Philippines Los Baños-Institute of Plant Breeding (UPLB-IPB), invested on the introduction and multiplication of improved hybrids and superior local cultivars.

The reality that no institution in the country is responsible for the multiplication and distribution of banana varieties was sticking out like a sore thumb. Thus, the establishment of a National Repository, Multiplication, and Distribution Center (NRMDC) was proposed to maintain the banana germplasm. Maintaining them virus-free becomes the role of BPI and IPB.

The project deals with three major phases:

· Introduction and multiplication of cultivars from IMTP and local popular cultivars.

· Evaluation of varieties planted under local condition.

· Promotion of improved hybrids and superior local cultivars for adoption of farmers through an improved production system using tissue culture planting materials.

The introduction and multiplication of disease-free and high-yielding resistant varieties compose the foundation stocks of NRMDCs. These varieties are also being evaluated under local conditions.

The IPB-BPI team, led by Dr. Felipe dela Cruz, Jr. and Lorna Herradura, aims to identify good varieties from banana demonstration sites where they recommend distribution of the selected varieties to farmers and state colleges and universities (SCUs) that need virus-free planting materials.

Most of the funding in the project was allocated to the maintenance of the banana germplasm through introduction and multiplication of new cultivars; maintenance of the collection of disease-free and high-yielding foundation stock; and evaluation of the varieties for distribution to farmers and SCUs.

Having an NRMDC as a repository made the request for planting materials from all over the country easier as compared to what had been done before -- forwarding requests for planting materials to Belgium, where the global banana gene bank is located, which could be limited in supply, more expensive, and would eventually take time to be delivered. -- DA-BAR Features