In Africa, plantain is one of the most important starchy food and cash crops. Nonetheless, one of the
major constraints for its production was the unavailability of healthy planting materials at planting
time. This constraint could be lifted using the cloning of planting materials via the in vitro
micropropagation or in vivo macropropagation techniques. Shelled corms from four cultivars, known
as PITA 3, FHIA 21, ORISHELE and CORNE 1, were used. Three treatments differing in three
hormonal concentrations, especially 20.0, 30.0 and 40.0 mg L
-1 were tested. The control one was
hormone free. Tested treatments were laid out in a split plot design. The decorticated banana corms
were sprayed twofold at 2 weeks interval with BAP solution when placed in sterilized soil in high
humidity plastic tunnel. It emerged from results, regarding BAP concentration effect, that BAP
treatment with 40 mg L
-1
significantly reduced the emergence time of shoots at 20 days as against
25.1, 28.3 and 28.5 for the 2 tested other treatments as well as control, respectively. Likewise, the
concentrations 40.0 mg L-1 both recorded the largest number of sprouted buds per corm and number
of shoots per corm. With respect to banana cultivar effect, PITA 3 showed the largest number of
shoots per corm. Basing on such findings, it is concluded that MSD technique combined with BAP at
40.0 mg L
-1
is a suitable technique for improving of the in vivo macropropagation of plantain. This
concentration increased at least 50 % of sucker production compared to control.