Incidence and Severity Study of Banana Bacterial Wilt (BWX)

Banana cultivation is of great importance to human nutrition in the eastern part of the Democratic Republic of Congo in general and in the Irhambi Katana group in particular. This work was carried out in the four localities of Kabamba, Mwanda, Kabushwa and Kahungu of the Irhambi-Katana group. Its overall objective was to contribute to the control of banana bacterial wilt and its methods were field observation and questionnaire survey combined. The results obtained show that the incidence of this disease varies from one locality to another: Kabamba has 51.556% followed by Kabushwa 45.333%, Kahungu 41.689% and Mwanda 28.333%. Thus, the incidence of banana plantation in Irhambi-Katana is between 28.333% and 51.556%. On the other hand, the severity is the same in all the localities studied, i.e. it has the rating 2 (pre-epidemic). Thus, banana plantations have symptoms such as wilting or yellowing of leaves that are visible, but can be confused with other diseases.