Occurrence and Incidence of Banana Bunchy Top Disease in Southern Part of Sindh

An investigation was performed to access the occurrence of bunchy top of banana in southern part of Sindh. Five banana fields of southern Sindh viz., Tandojam, Tando Allahyar, Mirpurkhas, Tando-Mohammad Khan and Hala were visited to observe the symptoms and incidence in the field. Infected plants showed the typical symptoms of bunchy top disease including bunchy and brittleness of leaves plus dot-dash dark green streaks on petioles and lamina parallel to veins. It was found that the incidence of bunchy top virus (BBTV) was quite high at Tandojam (75%) followed by Tando-Allahyar (70%) and Tando-Mohammad Khan (50%). It was further observed that the diseased plants significantly reduced the size of fingers, number of fingers per bunch and weight of fingers.