Our Favorite Bananas Could Soon Be Wiped Out For Good
- Thomas Nelson
- August 19, 2019
- Nature, News
- 0 Comments
More than 100 billion bananas are consumed globally each year, but that number could eventually drop to zero thanks to a devastating fungus.
Tropical Race 4, a type of Fusarium oxysporum fungus that has plagued Asian banana trees for three decades has now spread to Latin America. The spread was confirmed by the Colombian Agricultural Institute on August 8th. Colombia has declared a national state of emergency and is destroying and quarantining banana plantations to halt the spread of TR4.
Incidentally, this is not the first time a type of Banana has been lost to fungus. In the 1950s, the Gros Michel banana, which was commonly sold at the time, was nearly wiped out by a different Fusarium strain. Today, most bananas sold are the Cavendish variety, and almost all of them are grown in Latin America.
Once TR4 has infected a country, it is remarkably difficult to get rid of. The fungus is readily spread through infected plant matter, soil, and even water. Fungicides kill TR4 but are not effective against soil-borne TR4. TR4 can stay dormant in soil for years.
“As far as I know, ICA and the farms are doing a good job in terms of containment, but eradication is almost impossible,” Colombian phytopathologist Fernando García-Bastidas said in an interview with National Geographic.
The best bet for saving the banana is developing a new cultivar that is resistant to TR4, though it is worth noting that TR4 can infect and kill approximately 85% of bananas and plantains.
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