Abstract
Banana is an important source of food and income for millions of people in sub-Saharan Africa and Uganda in particular. This makes it one of the most important food crops in the country. However, production is limited by both biotic and abiotic constraints. Among the biotic constraints, is the decline in soil fertility. In addressing some of these biotic and abiotic constraints, banana breeding programmes are developing and releasing new banana varieties with limited information of their efficiency to capture soil nutrients. This study was to establish the physiological nutrient use efficiency of three new banana varieties namely FHIA17, M9 and M2 at harvesting time. The study was carried out in 8 (eight) districts of Uganda. Soil and tissue samples were collected from already established banana plantations for analysis of N, P, K, Ca and Mg. Tissue samples were collected by destructive sampling. Means of nutrients within district were separated using the Least Significant Difference (LSD) test at 5% level of significance (SAS, 2008). The nutritional status of bananas and the concentrations in various organs were, with respect to N, P, K, Ca and Mg, levels subjected to ANOVA. The relationship between plant content of the five nutrients and their concentration in the soil was determined by coefficient of correlation (r). The results showed no major significant nutrient use efficiencies between cultivars with FHIA 17 having the highest nutrient use efficiency. There were a few positive correlations between soil and plant nutrients. Key words: Nutrient concentrations, Banana cultivars, destructive sampling, nutrient interactions.
Highlights
Bananas are grown on about 1.5 million ha of land and represent 38% of total arable land in Uganda (NARO, Africa (Simmonds, 1982)
The results showed that FHIA 17 had the highest nutrient concentrations meaning that its nutrient uptake is higher than the rest of the cultivars
Total nutrient uptake and concentration does not depend on the cultivars but other factors which may include, soil moisture, management practices and soil ph
Summary
Bananas are grown on about 1.5 million ha of land and represent 38% of total arable land in Uganda (NARO, Africa (Simmonds, 1982). The East African highland cooking and juice bananas ABB) are important staple foods in East Africa, providing more than 25% of carbohydrates and 10% of the calorie requirement for 70 crops in the country (FAO, 2004). The most commonly grown bananas in Uganda are those belonging to the genome AAA, while AAB and ABB million people (Karamura, 2001). The East African highland bananas are by far the most widely distributed cultivar in the region, stretching from Eastern Democratic Republic of Congo to the southern fringes of the Ethiopian highlands and down to Mbeya in Southern Tanzania
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