Breeding cooking bananas for areas with marginal growing conditions by using Cardaba (ABB) in cross-pollinations
The ABB cooking bananas (Bluggoe, Saba, Cardaba and Pelipita) have a high level of resistance to black Sigatoka (Mycosphaerella fijiensis), are resistant to drought, and are tolerant of soil nutritional deficiencies. Of these cultivars, Saba is produced in the greatest amount for a particular area. It is the most important cooking banana in the Philippines where its estimated annual production is over 1.5 million t (Valmayor 1987). Saba and Cardaba were earlier thought to have a BBB genomic composition, but results from an isozyme analysis (Jarret, Litz 1986) indicate that both should be classified as ABB. All these robust ABB cultivars can be grown in areas with soil and climatic conditions unfavorable for cultivation of the AAB plantains and AAA dessert bananas. Plantains predominate as the preferred starchy banana in Latin America and the Caribbean, and most of the nearly 5 million t of these AAB cooking types produced annually in this region are consumed domestically (Jaramillo 1987). Plantains are even more important in western and central Africa where they account for more than 25% of the carbohydrates in the diets of some 60 million people. Over 60% of the world's plantains are produced and consumed in this area of Africa (INIBAP 1987)
Article, English, 1992
San Jose, Costa Rica: INIBAP, 1992
1992