The bacterial banana Xanthomonas wilt (BXW) disease will endanger the livelihoods of millions of East African farmers if left uncontrolled, according to specialists. First reported about 40 years ago in Ethiopia, BXW is endemic in most of Uganda, and has been reported in Burundi, the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), Kenya and Rwanda.

“BXW is the most serious threat to banana production in East Africa,” Wafa Khoury, a plant pathologist and agricultural officer in the Plant Production and Protection Division of the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), told IRIN. “BXW is very serious because it could wipe out all cultivars planted in the continent, with almost no resistance detected...

"The plants wilt and eventually die. They either do not produce fruits, and when they do, they are hard and inedible to either humans or animals and they cannot be processed even," Khoury said.

Bananas and plantains are the world’s fourth most important food crop after rice, wheat, and maize.