Dangerous tropical diseases push bananas to the brink of extinction, warn researchers

The researchers warned for several years that a tropical disease could eliminate the most consumed banana varieties. And now, a banana species that could hold the key to protect the world's banana crops is in danger.

Reuters

Known as Panama disease, or Fusarium oxysporum f.sp. cubense, the fungal infection is already prevalent in Asia, Africa, the Middle East, Australia and Central America.

Researchers say that if the infection reached South America, the Cavendish banana – the most sold and consumed species in the world – could

Cavendish bananas are genetically identical to each other, allowing Panama disease to rapidly decimate whole crop yields.

The salvation for banana crops could take the form of a rare Malagasy tree. banana species immunized against Panama disease

Plant biologists rush to create a hybrid of the two banana species in hopes of creating a strain resistant to infections. However, there are only five Malagasy banana trees.

Twitter / Cavendish Bananas

Richard Allen, Senior Conservation Assessor at the Royal Botanic Gardens in Kew, told the BBC that the rare disease resistant species (Ensete perrieri) has some traits that make it more sustainable than the Cavendish banana.

Primarily among them, the climate in Madagascar would have played a role in creating a banana that has evolved to have an innate tolerance to drought and disease. During an expedition on the island off the coast of Africa, scientists at Royal Botanic Gardens discovered that only a handful of plants remained.

Unlike Cavendish banana, which is grown commercially and consumed around the world, banana from Madagascar produces seeds and is unpleasant. It is thought that the combination of the two banana strains could produce a better scenario of both, the hybrid being both edible and sustainable.

Reuters

Banana grows on the edge of forests, where it is vulnerable to weather and weather-related damage. logging, forest fires and deforestation.

He is now on the official red list of the IUCN (International Union for the Conservation of Nature). In the 1950s, Panama disease devastated a type of banana known as "Gros Michel." & # 39; (often known as Big Mike).

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