Favourite banana variety risks extinction from fungal disease

Banana production faces a growing threat that could wipe out the most popular variety of the fruit.

A global plan to fight Fusarium wilt, a fungus spreading from Asia to Africa and the Middle East, is needed to prevent the world’s most popular banana variety – the Cavendish – from disappearing.

The UN’s Food and Agricultural Organisation (FAO) and 30 other organisations have estimated that a strategic global plan to contain the disease could cost $47m to implement.

While resources have not yet been allocated to the plan, the estimated budget covers measures to prevent the spread of the disease into non-infected regions.

The destructive fungus, Fusarium oxysporum f.sp. cubense Tropical Race 4, or TR4, has afflicted Asia for more than 20 years, affecting China, Indonesia, Malaysia and Taiwan. It also occurs in northern Australia.

A major reason for concern is that most banana plantations in Asia, Africa and South and Central America are planted with a single variety, the Cavendish, which is susceptible to the fungus.

Perennial, high yielding and with long “green life” which makes it easy to ship, the Cavendish has dominated banana production since a formerly popular variety, Gros Michel, was wiped out by Fusarium Race 1 fungus in the 1950s.

The disease's appearance in Mozambique in early 2013 raised the alarm of cross-continent spread, and sparked moves to devise the global plan, the main goals of which were discussed last month during a meeting in Rome where the FAO is based.