Clara Gambart

Drought stress greatly impacts banana (Musa spp.) production (Van Asten et al. 2011), limiting its growth and yield. In the East African Great Lakes region, East African highland bananas (EAHBs) dominate the agricultural production systems (Karamura et al. 2012). They are considered endemic to the region with no clear analogues elsewhere in the world. The existing EAHB genetic diversity is limited, as it is only based on somaclonal mutations and continuous farmer selection (Perrier et al. 2011).

1 Introduction With human population reaching its highest level ever recorded, agriculture is more than ever challenged to increase food, feed, fuel, and fiber production, without degrading the environment or impeding the future production potential (Foley et al. 2011). Climate-smart agriculture encourages the implementation of flexible, context-specific solutions that increase the resilience and resource use efficiency of agricultural systems (Lipper et al. 2014).

Abstract Implementation of context-specific solutions, including cultivation of varieties adapted to current and future climatic conditions, were found to be effective in establishing resilient, climate-smart agricultural systems. Gene banks play a pivotal role in this. However, a large fraction of the collections remains neither genotyped nor phenotyped.