ProMusa

ProMusa

Motto	Mobilizing banana science for sustainable livelihoods
Established	1997
Location	Montpellier, France
Membership	Global
Parent organization	Coordinated by Bioversity International
Website	www.promusa.org

ProMusa is a platform of scientists and other stakeholders to facilitate the exchange of information and knowledge on banana. It is managed by Bioversity International, through funding from the CGIAR Research Program on Roots, Tubers and Bananas.

Promusa was initiated in 1997 by the World Bank and INIBAP as a global program to co-ordinate and improve research on banana improvement. Its aim was to increase interactions between pathologists and the world’s few banana breeders in order to maximize the outputs of breeding and accelerate the impact of banana improvement efforts.

At the start, the program had five interlinked thematic working groups (Genetic Improvement, Fusarium wilt, Sigatoka diseases, Nematodes and Viruses), coordinated by a secretariat which was provided by INIBAP. It was directed by a Steering Committee and operated under a Program Support Group composed of major donors and stakeholders.

In 2006, the program was reorganized into three working groups (Crop Production, Crop Protection and Crop Improvement). Since 2006, ProMusa also provides the basic structure for the Section on Banana and Plantain (SEBA) of the International Society for Horticultural Science (ISHS).

Membership to ProMusa is open to anyone interested in banana. ProMusa is overseen by a Steering Committee composed of the ProMusa coordinator, the chair and vice-chair of each of the three working groups and ISHS-SEBA, a representative of the global Musa genetic resources network MusaNet and a representative of each of four regional banana R&D networks. Bioversity International provides the Secretariat of ProMusa.

In alliance with ISHS, ProMusa organizes scientific symposia, oversees the development of an online, collaboratively built and peer-reviewed compendium of knowledge on bananas (Musapedia), and produces a newsletter that puts in context scientific breakthroughs on banana and highlights relevant news and events (InfoMus@). ProMusa also manages three databases: a repository of references on banana (Musalit); an image bank on banana (Musarama), and a contacts database (Musacontacts).