Evaluation of Banana (Musa Spps.) for Growth, Yield, and Disease Reaction at Teppi, Southwestern Ethiopia

ABSTRACT Banana belongs to the (Musaceae) family. It is a crop of immense economic importance worldwide. The aim of this work was to evaluate the performance of Banana cultivars for yield and yield components. Nine banana cultivars and one standard check cultivar were compared in Tepi agricultural research center. The experiment was laid out in a randomized complete block design with three replications. The analysis of variance showed that, for all phonological and vegetative traits except leaf width, significant variation has been recorded. The combined analysis of the over seasons revealed significant difference due to cultivars and years for most of the characters tested. The over years combined analyses of variance revealed that there were significant differences (P < .05) among cultivars for all parameters considered in the study. Among the cultivars, the highest yield (39.58 t/ha) was recorded for cultivar Ambowha Selle-3, but statistically on par with cultivars Dinke-1 (38.27), Williams-1 (38.17), Ambo-2 (38.02), William hybrid (37.88), and Paracido Alrey (37.14) t/ha. In contrast, the lowest yield was recorded for lady finger (33.81) which is statistically similar to Chinese dwarf (36.72) and Paracido Alrey (37.14) t/ha.


Introduction
Bananas (Musa spp.) belong to the Musaceae family.Banana is one of the most consumed tropical fruits around the world (Ahmed and Palta, 2010).It is important for economic development, food security, and nutrition (Alemu, 2017;Amen and Desalegn, 2018).Nutritionally, banana is a source of potassium, magnesium, copper, manganese, and vitamin C (Wall, 2006).Banana fruit can be utilized as a value-added supplement and is a fantastic source of nutrients for the human diet because of its important nutritional components, which include fiber, protein, minerals, and antioxidant chemicals.The nutritional value of many foods may be enhanced by adding banana fruit and flour supplements (Ahmed et al., 2020).In recent decades, its significance to the world's food supply has considerably expanded (FAO, 2020).Agroecological conditions in Ethiopia are favorable for the production and cultivation of a variety of tropical, subtropical, and temperate fruits:-with the banana being the major one (Teklay et al., 2016).Commercially, banana is the leading fruit in global trade both by volume and value (Ahmed andPalta, 2015, 2016;Salvador et al., 2007).In Ethiopia, banana covers the largest area (56.79%) of the fruit crops followed by avocados which contributed 17.26% of the area.Bananas took up 63.49% of the fruit production and its production is mainly concentrated in southern nation nationalities and peoples followed by Oromia, Amhara, and Benishan Gul-Gumuz (CSA The Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia Central Statistical Agency, 2018).
Despite its importance, the production and productivity of bananas have been constrained by different factors.Therefore, Ethiopia's banana productivity is 8.23 tha-1 (CSA The Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia Central Statistical Agency, 2018), which is significantly lower than the global average (22.6 tha-1).A few of the numerous issues include a lack of available improved varieties, pests and diseases, producers' reliance on local varieties for a prolonged period of time, poor agronomic techniques, poor post-harvest management, and a lackluster market information system (Zinabu et al., 2019).Farmers in the main banana-growing regions use low-yielding, poor-quality banana cultivars that are also susceptible to diseases and pests that have been under production for a long time (Yoseph et al., 2014).Due to a lack of improved cultivars in the target area, small-scale farmers in south-western Ethiopia, notably in the Teppi area, were growing the local cultivar of bananas, which has a low yield.Hence, the need to introduce improved banana varieties to the target area is crucial to boost production and productivity.As a result, this study was designed to select the best performing banana varieties for the target area.

Study Area
The field experiment was conducted for three crop cycles at Teppi Agricultural Research Center, in south western Ethiopia.Teppi is located at an elevation of 1200 meters above sea level.The research center receives an annual rainfall of 1559 mm with maximum and minimum temperatures of 29.7°C and 15.5°C, respectively.The soil of the experimental site is radish brown sandy clay loam classified as Nitosol with pH range of 5.6 to 6.

Experimental Treatment and Design
For this experiment, a total of 9 banana cultivars that were brought from the Melkassa Agricultural Research Center and 1 standard variety were employed.The experiment was set up using a Randomized Complete Block Design (RCBD) with three replications.The spacing of 2.5 m between rows and 2.5 m between plants was used.The planting hole with 60 cm depth and 60 cm width were prepared 3 months before planting and suckers of each cultivar were planted.Desuckering was used to remove undesirable suckers, and each pit was only allowed to support one sucker at a time.Important field management practices like sucker management, earthing up, propping, and other practices were followed as per recommendation.

Data Collection and Analysis
From the planting date through the harvest time, several parameters were recorded.The following is a list of the key parameters gathered: The number of fruits per bunch, bunch weight, and total yield per hectare were collected, along with phonological data such as days from planting to flowering and days from flowering to harvest.Growth parameters like plant height, pseudo stem girth, leaf number, length, and width, yield, as well as related data such as the number of fruits per bunch, bunch weight, and total yield per hectare were collected and the collected data were analyzed using a statistical analysis system (SAS).

Results and Discussion
The analysis of variance revealed significant variations in vegetative, yield, and yield component parameters among the varieties (P < .05)(Tables 1 and 2).This shows the existence of large variability among the varieties for the parameters considered.The individual and combined analysis of variance for yield and yield-related parameters revealed significant differences (P < .05)among varieties in all years.For all phonological and vegetative traits, significant variation has been recorded.The analysis of variance showed significant differences due to cultivars and years for most of the characters tested.
When compared to the control, the cultivars Williams Hybrid, Amboweha Selle-3, and Ambo-2 had the tallest plants, while cultivars Dinke-1, Dinke-2, and Ambo −3 were shorter.All cultivars in the current investigation had plants with a small height (163.94cm to 197.97 cm).Kinde (2021) noted the variation in cultivar-specific plant height.The pseudo stem girth size for Paracido Alrey ranged from 64.21 cm to 70.81 cm for Williams hybrid (Table 1).The difference in the plant girth could be probably due to the genetic variation among the cultivars.This result is in line with the findings of Njuguna The number of functional leaves per plant varied between 8.3 and 10.31 for Lady Finger and Amboweha sell-3, respectively (Table 1).In the present study, the cultivars with vigor pseudo stem girth size had comparable leaf number with shorter cultivars.The time it took the cultivars to reach flowering and harvesting stages differed significantly.The cultivars Chinese Dwarf, Williams Hybrid, Lady Finger, and Paracido al Rey were the earliest to flower, whereas Ambo-3, Dinke-2, Williams-1, Dinke-1, and Ambo-2 compared to the others, it took the longest to flower and harvest.The cultivars with shorter flowering times also reached maturity earlier.This may be caused by the genome of banana cultivars and how the cultivars adapt to their environments.The current investigation supported the findings of Mohammed et al. (2014).Different banana cultivars had a considerable difference on the phonological parameters of the banana.The present study indicated that it took a long time (327.94days) from planting to flowering for cultivar Ambo-3 and the shortest time (286.88days) for the cultivar William hybrid.These findings are in line with earlier research (Asmare et al., 2021) which found that the cultivars Ambo-2 and Chinese dwarf had the longest and shortest times to shooting, respectively, of 316.8 days and 243.8 days.Days to flowering, days to maturity, and other morphological characteristics in the current study were significantly differed in the current study.Yoseph et al. (2014) and Binalfew and Damtew (2015) both reported similar findings.
The results of the analysis of variance revealed that all cultivars had statistically non-significant values for the parameters mean hands per bunch, mean bunch weight, marketable fruit weight, mean fruit length, mean fruit diameter, mean number of fruits per hand, and total yield.Bunch weight showed significant difference among the ten Banana cultivars (Table 2).The cultivar Ambowha selle −3 yielded the most bunch weight, although they were not noticeably different from other cultivars except Dinke-2 and Lady Finger.The findings are consistent with those of Goncalves et al. (2018) and Sagar et al. (2017), who discovered bunch weight variations between different banana cultivars.Banana cultivars differ in bunch weight, according to Njuguna et al. (2008) and Kamira et al. (2016).Yield of banana was significantly influenced by cultivars (Binalfew and Damtew, 2015).
The number of hands per bunch varied between 8.25 and 9.27 on average.The average number of hands, according to Goncalves et al. (2018) and Mattos et al. (2010), was 7 and 6, respectively, which is less than the finding of the present study.The current study's findings revealed that the average number of fingers per hand ranged from 13.02 to 14.47 (Table 2).According to Mattos et al. (2010), there are 14 fingers on an average on each hand, which is consistent with our finding.
There was no significant difference among banana cultivars in the mean finger weight, diameter, and length (Table 2).Various researches reported varietal differences in fruit size (Gaidashova et al., 2008;Mattos et al., 2010;Njuguna et al., 2008;Sagar et al., 2017;Uazire et al., 2008).The mean marketable and total fruit yields of different banana cultivars did not differ significantly from one another (Table 2).Genetic differences and environmental factors may contribute to variations in yields among cultivars (Fonsah et al., 2007).However, the type of genotype may play a more significant role in determining the yield potential of a banana cultivar (Njuguna et al., 2008).

Correlation Analysis
The correlation coefficients between growth parameters and yield components are displayed in Table 3. Days till flowering had a highly significant negative association (−0.513) with pseudo stem girth.A significant correlation between the number of leaves and the flowering date was observed (0.622).Days of flowering and pseudo stem girth showed a strong positive association (0.558).None of the other growth-related factors displayed a significant association with the yield components or among themselves.Marketable fruit weight (0.817), fruit length (0.290), and fruit diameter (0.308) all demonstrated a highly significant positive association with total yield.Bunch weight also had a highly significant positive correlation with total yield (1.00).Fruit length and bunch weight showed an extremely significant positive association (0.290) and fruit diameter (0.308).Different traits affected the yield of different banana cultivars in this study.Asmare et al. (2021) reported that characteristics that are linked to yield and are less influenced by the environment may be helpful for increasing banana yield.The correlation study revealed that the growth parameters were poor predictors of banana yield, as seen from the correlation coefficients.This finding is consistent with those of (Kumar et al., 2014) and (Asmare et al., 2021), who reported similar correlation studies on several banana cultivars.

Disease Progress Rate
Data on the response of cultivars to the disease under field conditions was recorded based on 0 to 5 rating scale.The disease development curves of Black Sigatoka leaf blight (severity versus days after a disease occurs) were drawn to compare the reaction of cultivars against the disease Figure 1.The curve revealed that disease severity developed increasingly starting from the onset to the final severity recorded during the study periods.The disease progress curves also indicated that the disease progress was not analogous for each cultivar evaluated.Disease severity in Ambo-2 genotypes followed relatively high progressive curves and exhibited the peak levels of Black Sigatoka disease severity.The Williams hybrid cultivar followed similar curves as Ambo-2 cultivar.However, disease progress curves of Dinke-2 cultivar progressed gradually and displayed the lowest stages of sigatoka disease severity at different days after disease occurrence.Whereas cultivars like Lady Finger, Chinese Dwarf, Ambowha selle-3, Williams 1, Paracido Alrey were intermediate between Ambo-2 and Dinke-2.

Conclusion
Bananas have a great deal of potential to increase household income, create more job opportunities, fight poverty, and ensure dietary security.To assure larger yields, better revenue, and a major contribution of banana farming to food security, nutritional security, and improved lives in the nation, a set of constraints along banana production must be taken into account at the same time.Along with the previously released varieties, the best performing cultivars like Dinke-1 and Lady Finger ought to be multiplied and spread throughout the region.To increase banana yield and productivity, banana cultivars with high yields, excellent quality, and strong disease resistance must be released and popularized.In addition to variety enhancement, crop pre-and post-harvest handling should be given priority.

Figure 1 .
Figure 1.Reaction of banana cultivars to Black Sigatoka (Mycosphaerella fijiensis) disease progress curves at different times after disease symptoms observed on cultivars at Tepi, Ethiopia.

Table 1 .
ANOVA of mean phonological and vegetative parameters of banana cultivars combined over 3 years at Teppi, n = 90.

Table 2 .
ANOVA of mean yield and yield components of banana cultivars combined over 3 years at Teppi, n = 90.