DESIGN AND IMPLEMENTATION OF A STUDENT FACIAL RECOGNITION-BASED ATTENDANCE MANAGEMENT SYSTEM. A CASE STUDY OF FEDERAL POLYTECHNIC MUBI, YOLA CAMPUS

Banana (Musa paradisiaca L.) is a key staple and cash crop in Yola, Adamawa State, but fruit rot during the post-harvest period significantly reduces marketable yield. Fungi responsible for banana fruit rot in Yola were examined, the pathogens identified, and their pathogenicity determined. Spoilt banana fruits were collected from farms within and surrounding Yola and symptomatically infected tissues surface-sterilized and plated on potato dextrose agar. Pure fungal isolates were initially identified by colony and microscopic characteristics and then validated for representative isolates by sequencing the internal transcribed spacer (ITS) region. The pathogenicity of selected isolates was established by artificial inoculation of healthy banana fruits under controlled conditions and re-isolation in a bid to satisfy Koch's postulates. A cosmopolitan mycobiota was isolated; among the most frequent taxa were Colletotrichum spp., Fusarium spp., Aspergillus niger, Penicillium spp., and Rhizopus spp. Molecular ITS data supported morphological identifications and reflected that Colletotrichum spp. were the most frequent cause of field and post-harvest rot. Representative isolates of Colletotrichum and Fusarium in inoculation tests caused symptoms congruent with those observed in the field and stem their pathogenicity. The findings indicate that both pre-harvest (field) and post-harvest pathogens are responsible for banana losses in Yola with implications for integrated management. The interventions recommended are improvement in field sanitation, early harvesting and cooling, and specific fungicide or biological control trials against the predominant pathogens identified.