'NARITA 8'

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'NARITA 8' is a high-yielding and disease-resistant hybrid that is related, through its female grandparent, to a group of cooking and beer bananas called East African highland bananas (EAHB). ‘NARITA 8’ is named after NARO and IITA, the institutes that jointly developed the NARITA hybrids1 .

Two crosses were performed to obtain ‘NARITA 8’. The triploid EAHB cultivar ‘Enzirabahima’ was crossed with a wild source of disease resistance to produce a tetraploid. This tetraploid was then crossed with an improved diploid to produce the triploid hybrid ‘NARITA 8’ (see Breeding strategy below).

‘NARITA 8’ 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 juice type.

Breeding strategy

Breeding scheme for 'NARITA 8'

‘NARITA 8’ is a secondary triploid obtained by crossing a disease-resistant tetraploid (917K-2) with an improved diploid developed by FHIA (SH3217)4 .

The tetraploid female parent 917K-2 was obtained by crossing the triploid EAHB cultivar ‘Enzirabahima’ and Calcutta 4, a genebank accession of the diploid wild species Musa acuminata ssp. burmannica, which provided a copy of the so-called A genome. Calcutta 4 provided the resistance to black leaf streak.

The  diploid male parent SH3217 was the product of a cross between two improved diploids: SH2095 and SH2766. The parents of SH2095 were the products of a cross between 'Sinwobogi' (AA) and 'Tjau Lagada' (AA)  and of a cross between Musa acuminata ssp. malaccensis and 'Guyod' (AA). The parents of the improved diploid SH2766 were 'Tjau Lagada' (AA) and the product of a cross between Musa acuminata ssp. malaccensis and 'Guyod' (AA).

Agronomic performance

The following agronomic data were collected during a preliminary yield trial carried out by IITA and NARO at Namulonge in Central Uganda4 :

Traits	NARITA 8*
Plant height at flowering (cm)	362.4
Pseudostem girth at flowering (cm)	58.2
Time from flowering to harvest (days)	136.6
Bunch weight (kg)	20.8
Number of hands	8.5
Number of fingers	143.8
Fruit circumference (cm)	12.8
Fruit length (cm)	19.1
Number of functional leaves at flowering	9.6
Number of functional leaves at harvest	3.8
Height of tallest sucker at flowering (cm)	298.4
Height of tallest sucker at harvest (cm)	346.3
Youngest leaf spotted at flowering	8.3
Youngest leaf spotted at harvest	3.4
Survival rate (%)	100

Reaction to diseases and pests

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

References

See also on this website

External links

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