International Musa Testing Programme: a global programme to evaluation elite Musa varieties for efficient disease management

English. In the last 15 years, Musa breeding programme within the INIBAP network have made significant accomplishments resulting to an increasing number of new, high yielding and disease resistant varieties of bananas and plantain. These varieties include both dessert and cooking types, a number of which are considered to hold good potential for smallholder production in Asia. These improved varieties are made available through the INIBAP coordinated programme: The IMTP through an appropriate material transfer agreement. IMTP is a collaborative effort to evaluate elite Musa varieties in suitable sites worldwide and was first developed to carry out detailed evaluations of new materials, to obtain information on their resistance/tolearnce to the major pests and diseases of banana, the black and yellow sigatoka caused by Mycosphaerella fijiensis and M. musicola, respectively, and to Fusarium wilt caused by Fusarium oxysperum f. sp. cubense. IMTP phase 2 st arted in 1996 when 15 countries initiated their field plots using 9 different elite varieties from Honduras, Taiwan, Brazil and Cuba. Results showed that several of these varieties particularly the FHIA lines are resistant to Sigatoka disease and Fusarium unit. IMTP Phase 3 is now in progress, where newere varieties are included. In Asia, the following countries are participating: India, Philippines, Indonesia, malaysia, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Australia, China and Vietnam. IMTP varieties that are adapable for commercial use by farmers are available for multiplication and distribution by identified National Repository Centers (NRCs) is Asean countries. In the Philippines, IPB-UPLB and BPI-DNCRDC were designated as the NRCs.

English. Conference of the Pest Management Council of the Philippines Cebu City, Philippines 6-9 May 2003