After their bananas were hit by a new disease, communities from Thyolo Thava constituency have now started receiving new variety of banana suckers in a restoration drive.
This is coming after some parts of Thyolo and Mulanje districts were hit by Banana Bunchy Top Virus, a banana disease which reduces the growth of banana plants and causes bunching of newly emerged leaves and the infected plants rarely produce fruits.
The major strategy used to deal with the disease required banana growers to uproot and burn all their bananas and replace them with disease-free varieties.
In trying to restore the bananas in Thyolo Thava constituency, member of parliament for the area Mary Thom Navicha has launched distribution of 15,000 new banana suckers to her constituents.
On Monday 24th April, 2023, the lawmaker distributed a total of 8,500 suckers to 1,700 families at Thava ward where each of the families was receiving five banana suckers.
Navicha told this publication that the initiative follows advice from Ministry of Agriculture which recommended the uprooting of all the remaining infected bananas and burning them to prevent further spread of the disease.
She said the new suckers which have been bought from Leehort, Bunda in Lilongwe using Community Development Fund (CDF), will help to alleviate poverty which hit the area as a result of the banana outbreak.
“Today, we have distributed Banana suckers to the people of Thyolo Thava Constituency. As you are aware we lost all the bananas due to a disease called leafy bunch. Almost ten years down the line, people have experienced extreme poverty.
“As a member of Parliament for the area I thought it wise to use the CDF to buy 15,000 suckers in order to bring back the lost glory. This is an ongoing programme up until the whole Constituency restores all the lost bananas,” said Navicha.
Navicha further expressed optimism about the future of the crop in her constituency claiming people who in the past two years planted new varieties, have already started reaping from their sweat.
She however pointed out that the banana restoration process would have taken greater heights if suckers were adequately available to communities in the affected areas including her constituency.
“We can now celebrate that from the past two years, people are able to plant and harvest bananas but the challenge was lack of enough banana suckers to speed up restoration,” she added.
Navicha further disclosed that the 15,000 suckers have costed her constituency K10 million and added that 1400 families from Mzimbiri ward are expected to get their suckers in the next few days.
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