Banana Weevil
The banana weevil (Cosmopolites sordidus Germar) is the most destructive insect
pest of banana. It is thought to have originated in the Indo-Malayan region (Simmonds,
1966). This important pest has spread around the world. Host plant resistance to this
corm-burrowing pest is available, including diploids such as ‘Calcutta 4’, ‘Kisubi’ (AB
genome), ‘TMB2×8075-7’, ‘TMB2×7197-2’ and ‘TMB2×6142-1’ (AA genome)
(Kiggundu et al., 2003), East African AA diploids ‘Njeru’ and ‘Muraru’ (Musabyimana et
al., 2000), as well as in ‘Yangambi Km5’ and Musa balbisiana (BB genome) (Fogain and
Price, 1994). Host plant resistance to banana weevil has been reported in AA diploids
such as ‘Calcutta 4’ and ‘Pisang Lilin’ (Ortiz et al., 1995).
Banana Research
The banana was grown with 30, 40, 50 and 60 litres of human urine application with irrigation water along with graded levels of commercial potassium fertilizers. Application of 50 litres of human urine per plant with 75% recommended commercial potassium fertilizer recorded 32.1% more plant height, 25.6% more pseudostem girth, 71.5% more number of leaves and 68.8% more leaf area, 25% more leaf nitrogen concentration, 52.6% more phosphorus concentration and 6.5% more leaf potassium than normally grown banana plants without urine application.
For optimum banana production 200 grams of nitrogen, 30 grams of phosphorus and 400 grams of potassium per plant are required.