The East African highlands, a densely populated area in the African Great Lakes region, are located at high altitudes (900-2000 m a.s.l.) and characterized by relatively low average temperatures (17-25°C). Banana (Musa spp.) is an important component of its production landscape, contributing in Uganda to up to 80% of the caloric intake. However, above 1500 m a.s.l. the relatively low ambient temperatures slow down the production and the on-farm diversity decreases. Although enhanced on-farm diversity has been proposed to increase production, little is known on the cultivar-specific agronomic requirements. High-throughput phenotyping installations with a tight climatic control, are essential to allow fast and early ex situ screening of the diversity with high experimental reproducibility. In this study, we introduce the BananaTainer as a suitable high-throughput, pre-field phenotyping installation i) to simulate East African highland weather conditions and ii) to evaluate differences in Musa’s low temperature responses.

https://doi.org/10.17660/actahortic.2023.1372.3

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Rony Swennenhttps://orcid.org/0000-0002-5258-9043

https://doi.org/10.17660/actahortic.2023.1372.3

Biotech and Plant Breeding

Agronomy; Banana; Biodiversity; Food Security; Plant Breeding; Plant Production

Bananas; Musa; Climate Change; Gene Banks; Temperature; East Africa

Africa; East Africa

Uganda

Eastern Africa Hub

Acta Horticulturae