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'NARITA 24'

'NARITA 24' at a glance

 

Ploidy level

3x

Genome group

AAA

Status

Synthetic hybrid

Breeding institutes

NARO and IITA

Breeder's code

 HB

Pedigree

 unknown

ITC code

ITC1797

'NARITA 24' is a high-yielding and disease-resistant hybrid that is related to a group of cooking and beer bananas called East African highland bananas (EAHB). ‘NARITA 24’ is named after NARO and IITA, the institutes that jointly developed the NARITA hybrids1 . The pedigree of ‘NARITA 24’ is unknown (see Breeding strategy).

‘NARITA 24’ has been tested on station in Uganda2 and is being evaluated in a broader range of end-users environments (including farmers’ fields), to assess its potential for adoption by farmers and consumers3 . Its primary use is as a cooking type.

Breeding strategy

The pedigree of ‘NARITA 24’ is unknown because by the time they were selected for evaluation, their mats had drifted from their original positions, making it difficult to identify them from the field map4 .

Agronomic performance

The following agronomic data were collected during a preliminary yield trial carried out by IITA and NARO at Namulonge in Central Uganda5 :

Traits
NARITA 24*
Plant height at flowering (cm)
333.3
Pseudostem girth at flowering (cm)
58.0
Time from flowering to harvest (days)
150.3
Bunch weight (kg)
30.4
Number of hands
11.6
Number of fingers
218.7
Fruit circumference (cm)
12.0
Fruit length (cm)
18.7
Number of functional leaves at flowering
10.3
Number of functional leaves at harvest
2.7
Height of tallest sucker at flowering (cm)
262.5
Height of tallest sucker at harvest (cm)
322.6
Youngest leaf spotted at flowering
8.0
Youngest leaf spotted at harvest
2.3
Survival rate (%)
40
* Data are averages for 10 plants evaluated over three crop cycles.
 

Reaction to diseases and pests

The scores for number of functional leaves and youngest leaf spotted at flowering and harvest indicate medium resistance to black leaf streak.

References

1 IITA press release on the first ever high-yielding matooke hybrids.
3 Website of the Breeding Better Bananas project.
4 Batte, M., Swennen, R., Uwimana, B., Akech, V., Brown, A., Tumuhimbise, R., Hovmalm, H.P., Geleta, M. and Ortiz, R. 2019. Crossbreeding East African Highland Bananas: Lessons Learnt Relevant to the Botany of the Crop After 21 Years of Genetic Enhancement. Frontiers in Plant Science 10:81.
5 Tushemereirwe W, Batte M, Nyine M, Tumuhimbise R, Barekye A, Tendo S, Kubiriba J, Lorenzen J and Swennen R. 2015. Performance of NARITA banana hybrids in the preliminary yield trial for three cycles in Uganda.

See also on this website

Musapedia pages on NARITA hybrids:
Musapedia pages on improved materials:

Official website of Uganda's National Agricultural Research Organization, NARO and its banana research program


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