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trient availability, (ii) increased porosity/ improved infiltration, (iii) increased surface rooting. Alternatively, The objective of this study was to determine whether mulching increased surface rooting could have a negative impact mitigated the impact of nematodes on banana (Musa AAA) inocuif nematodes reside primarily in the upper layers of the lated with Radopholus similis (Cobb) Thorne and Helicotylenchus multicinctus (Cobb) Golden. The study was conducted at Interna-soil profile, that is, a larger percentage of total root tional Institute of Tropical Agriculture's (IITA's) Sendusu station, biomass could potentially be exposed to nematode activ-Uganda. Treatments included mulched and bare soil with or without ity in the event of preferential surface rooting. Our nematode inoculation. Mulched treatments produced over three times objectives in this study were to determine the effect of more biomass than bare soil treatments. This increase in biomass was mulching on above-and below-ground biomass, soil and likely due to improved fertility as a result of mulching, since mulched foliar nutrient levels, and soil water uptake in banana treatments had higher concentrations of soil organic C, P, and exinoculated with R. similis and H. multicinctus. changeable K and Mg, and foliar K. Mulched banana took up more water from both the 0-to 0.3-m and 0.3-to 0.5-m depths than banana mats (three successive generations grown as a production unit) Center, P.O. Box 7878, Kampala, Uganda (now deceased); S.J. Riha, spaced at 3 by 3 m. Analysis of variances (ANOVA) were

Abs tract. Production loss caused by nematodes in East African highland banana was evaluated at Sendusu, near Kampala in Uganda, 1120 m above sea level. The commonly grown cultivar, Mbwazirume, was grown in nematode-infested and non-infested plots under heavily mulched, clean-weeded and millet-intercropped management regimes. Influence of the different treatments was evaluated over the second to the fourth crop cycle and management was observed to have the greatest influence on production. The non-infested heavily mulched plots produced 16.1 tonnes per ha per cycle compared with the clean-weeded and non-infested millet-intercropped plots only 5.6 and 5.3 tonnes per ha per cycle, respectively. Presence of Radopholus similis and Helicotylenchus multicinctus reduced the average production in the well mulched, clean-weeded and millet-intercropped plots by 30%, 32% and 38%, respectively. The nematode-induced loss is a result of a reduction of bunch weight, a reduction of flower production and an increase in plant toppling. When plant toppling occurred on a mat, the chance was highly reduced that this mat produces a harvestable bunch in the following cycle. Damage by the banana weevil, Cosmopolites sordidus, was higher in nematode-infested plants compared with noninfested plants. It may be that in nematode-infested plants, weevil larvae are more successful in developing or that adult weevils prefer nematodeinfested plants for egg disposal. No interaction between Black Sigatoka and nematode infestation was observed.

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