Viral indexing for the mass production of disease free planting materials of banana

Abstract

Banana and plantains (Musa spp.) are one of the largest food-fruit crop produced mostly by the developing countries in the tropical and subtropical regions. Major propagule in banana cultivation is its vegetative suckers and the availability of uniform and disease free suckers is the main problem faced by the farmers. The use of tissue culture planting material solved this problem to a greater extent by giving uniform growth and production. But there is no assurance for disease free material. In this study, the extent of disease incidence among the suckers collected for various parts of Kerala and Tamil Nadu states were compared through viral indexing, to assess the possibility of disease incidence in the Tissue culture planting materials. From the results it was reported that among the suckers collected from Tamil Nadu State, though there was 16.7 and 12.5 percent bacterial and fungal contamination, the suckers were free from viral infection. None of the suckers collected from Tamil Nadu state showed viral infection from any of the three major viruses, while those from Kerala, 41.2, 23.5 and 16.7 percent showed bacterial, fungal and viral contamination. From the study it is concluded that the climatic condition in which the mother plants grow has an influence in the contamination status of tissue culture. If explants need to be taken from Kerala, the mother plants should be grown in protected condition with less humidity.