SOURCE: Business World
The Bureau of Plant Industry (BPI) said that it is ramping up its efforts to contain Fusarium wilt, also known as Panama disease, in the banana industry.
“We’re really focusing on the best management because it doesn’t matter how will we produce if lose to pests and diseases,” BPI Director Gerald Glenn F. Panganiban told reporters last week.
Fusarium wilt is a soil-borne fungal disease that blocks the banana plant’s vascular system and deprives it of minerals, nutrients, and moisture. Affected plants turn yellow and die.
The Tropical Race 4 (TR4) strain was first detected in Davao City in 2009 and continues to threaten the Cavendish banana, the main export variety.
“We are partnered with the Philippine Space Agency to initiate a project that will allow us to really know the scope of damage,” he said.
In its banana market review, the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations said that the Philippines exported 2.24 million metric tons in 2022, down 6.21%.
The Philippines is the second top banana exporter next to Ecuador.
“The main exporter from the region continues to be the Philippines, which supplies some 60% of Asian banana shipments on average but has seen production severely affected by the spread of TR4 in the country as well as the high costs of inputs and fertilizer,” the FAO said.