Monoculture of Cavendish bananas has taken over most of Costa Rica, but there is a rising awareness that Tropical Race 4 is spreading in Africa and Southeast Asia. In 2014 FAO urged to step up global efforts in monitoring, reporting and prevention of the Panama Disease. Meanwhile, promoting indigenous underutilized …
A wild banana (Ensete perrieri) has been classified as Critically Endangered by the IUCN. These are only found in Madagascar, where there are just five mature trees left in the wild. In light of this, scientists are advocating its conservation as it may hold the secret to saving the Cavendish banana. …
The bananas your grandparents ate were different than the ones you eat today. And the bananas your grandchildren know will probably be entirely different as well.
For the moment, we are in the age of the Cavendish, a banana cultivar that accounts for 99 percent of imports to the Western world. …
A field trial in Australia has shown that genetically modified banana trees can resist the deadly fungus that causes Panama disease, which has devastated banana crops in Asia, Africa, and Australia and is a major threat for banana growers in the Americas. The transgenic plants might reach some farmers in …
Catastrophe is looming for the banana industry. A new strain has emerged of a soil-borne fungus known as “Panama disease” which can wipe out entire plantations – and it is rapidly spreading around the world. Farmers in Australia, Latin America and across Asia and Africa all fear the worst. The …
Until 1965, the Gros Michel banana cultivar was the world’s most popular, but it became commercially extinct because of the virulent Panama disease. Today’s most popular commercial banana, the Cavendish, was quickly adopted worldwide due to its immunity to Panama disease, but its lack of genetic diversity makes it vulnerable …
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