A clone of irradiated banana cultivar 'Williams' with high yield potential

Efforts to improve banana in the Sudan started effectively with three IAEA mutation breeding projects. The most common banana cultivar is 'Dwarf Cavendish', which covers almost 95% of the area under banana production. This cultivar is considered as the most adapted banana cultivar to different climatic conditions, but it is prone to 'choke throat' and has low yield potential. Banana cv. 'Williams' was irradiated at the IAEA/FAO laboratories, Seibersdorf, Austria. Based on preliminary evaluation of the material, 5 mutants (i.e. W193-3, W188-3, W205-4, W206-1 and W224-4) were selected as single plants and propagated by tissue culture. Multi-location testing was carried out for these mutants with cvs. 'Dwarf Cavendish' and 'Williams as standard cultivars in a randomized complete block design with 4 replications and 25 plants per replication. Spacing was 2 x 2 m (2500 plant per ha) and one sucker was retained. The bunch weight and cumulative yield of clone 193-3 were significantly higher than all banana genotypes. The high yield of clone W193-3 in the plant crop was due to the significantly higher number of hands per bunch and larger fingers. The plant height at shooting and pseudostem girth were significantly higher in clone W193-3. The stability parameters for bunch weight of the different clones showed that clone W193-3 was stable with high yield in all environments. Clone W193-3 was released as a new banana cultivar for farmers under the names 'Albeely'. (author)