FHIA-02 or Mbonwa (Local name):

Type of material: Hybrid

ITC number:0505

Tolerance to pests and diseases:

As most of the FHIAs diffused by this project, FHIA-02 is considered as a robust and drought resistant variety. The variety is however susceptible to Fusarium Wilt race 1. The presence of this disease has been confirmed on FHIA-02 samples from KCDP.


General acceptance and performance:

Farmers in Kagera appreciate FHIA-02 as a cooking banana. It is also a very good dessert banana, but the fingers tend to break at the branches when ripe. Because of the low tolerance of this variety to FW race 1, the diffusion has been limited and finally completely stopped since 2000. It has also to be noticed that many off-types were recorded among the in-vitro plants however all the appropriate measures had been taken. In order to overcome this problem, KCDP had decided to let them grow during 2 cycles before diffusion to farmers.

The average bunch weight is 18 Kg with minimum and maximum recorded weight of 3 and 58 Kg respectively (see graph - 504 bunches harvested).


Direct and indirect diffusion:

FHIA-02 has been introduced for the first time by ARI-Maruku (Agricultural Research Institute) in 1995 in the Kagera region. In 1997, KCDP started multiplying moderately this variety. A total of 1,424 in-vitro plants have been received from KULeuven from 1997 until December 2001. 6,803 plants have been directly diffused till December 2001. 40,374 plants have been indirectly diffused so far on the hypothesis that one plant produces 2 suckers every year. This brings the total diffusion of FHIA-02 to 47,177 plants in December 2001. Farmers are aware of its susceptibility and some decide to stop multiplication in their own fields.