Banana is an important crop for food and income in Burundi. However, average annual yields are low (5 t/ha) because of low and declining soil fertility, and pest and disease pressure. To help overcome the challenges to banana production in the Great Lakes region of Central Africa, the Consortium...

The collection and morphological characterization of Musa spp. (bananas and plantains) started during the 1950s in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DR Congo) at the Institut National pour l'Etude Agronomique du Congo (INEAC) Yangambi Research Station, where 56 plantain cultivars were established...

Musa (bananas and plantains), an important food and income crop in the east and central African Great Lakes countries (Rwanda, Burundi and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DR Congo)), has suffered declines in production and diversity over the past 20 years. The loss in cultivar diversity is mainly ...

The Congo Basin is an important centre of diversity for plantain. Plantain is mainly grown below 1200 m above sea level (masl). However, some plantain cultivars can be found up to 2200 masl in the highlands along the Albertine Rift Valley in North Kivu. This study assessed the effect of altitude on ...

As a result of declining farm/plot size and increasing food security needs, intercropping is practised by the majority of small-scale farmers in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo. A banana-legume intercropping experiment was conducted at the Mulungu Research Station in South Kivu Province to...

Bananas and plantains serve as important food crops in much of Africa. In the Democratic Republic of Congo (DR Congo), production of bananas is concentrated in the eastern region and ranges between 75,000 and 80,000 t/year. Bananas rank second in importance after cassava in eastern DR Congo and are ...

This book addresses issues related to intensification of banana-based cropping systems in the (sub)humid highland areas of Africa. The information that is presented in the 28 chapters of the book is based on research carried out in the Great Lakes Region by CIALCA (Consortium for Improving...

Lack or shortage of healthy and improved planting material is a major constraint to the expansion of banana and plantain production. The situation is made worse by the lack of formal systems for producing and distributing quality planting material, thereby forcing farmers to depend on natural...

Coffee is a primary cash crop and banana a primary food crop in the East African highlands region, including Rwanda, Burundi, north-west Tanzania, west and central Kenya and eastern Democratic Republic of Congo. These two crops often occur on the same smallholder farms, either planted on separate...

To explore the diversity and efficiency of smallholder farms, we developed an approach based on a comparative framework and a systems analysis. Five sites in three countries (Rwanda, Burundi and Democratic Republic of Congo) were studied in parallel to take account of variations in agro-ecological...