Kenya has banned the movement of banana seedlings in its western states after an outbreak of xanthomonas wilt disease inUganda, Kenyan newspaper the Nairobi Star has reported.
Officials from the ministry of agriculture have advised farmers in districts on the border with Uganda not to move seedlings to neighbouring districts in order to contain the spread of the disease.
Seline Bonyo, an agricultural officer in Ugenya district, said that she had introduced strict quarantine requirements for the movement of banana planting seedlings out of Siaya county, to prevent the disease from spreading to other regions.
“We have managed to establish bulking farms in selected centres where farmers will obtain disease-free banana planting materials as a measure to prevent the spread of the disease,” she told the Nairobi Star.
