The November 2019 issue of the Food Outlook published by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) features an article written by Sabine Altendorf on “Banana Fusarium Wilt Tropical Race 4: A mounting threat to global banana markets?” According to the Altendorf, Fusarium Wilt TR4 isContinue Reading
South African research facility Du Roi Laboratory has struck a deal with a Taiwanese institute to grow and market a banana variety resistant to Fusarium wilt Tropical Race IV (TR4). The deal announced on Wednesday gives Du Roi the rights to the Formosana variety and allows it to monitorContinue Reading
A rapid spread of African Swine Fever (ASF) is wiping out pig herds in China, the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) said on Thursday, and the killer disease has led to a drop in world meat production for the first time in more than 20 years, with other globalContinue Reading
The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) has launched an emergency project under its Technical Cooperation Programme to help countries in Latin America and the Caribbean fight the spread of Fusarium wilt, a fungal plant disease that can wipe out the banana crops upon which the livelihoodsContinue Reading
A research project has brought together artificial intelligence (AI), satellites, cloud computing and the internet of things (IoT) to help farmers detect diseased bananas using a smartphone app. The AI tool is built into an app called Tumaini, which means ‘hope’ in Swahili. It uses image recognition technologyContinue Reading
Colombia has declared a national state of emergency following confirmation that a dread fungus has appeared in the country’s banana plantations. The 8 August declaration marks the first time that Fusarium wilt tropical race 4 (TR4), which has devastated crops in Asia, has been confirmed in Latin America, the world’sContinue Reading
In a long-feared development, an extremely damaging banana disease has apparently reached Latin America. Late last week, the Colombian Agricultural Institute (ICA) in Bogotá confirmed that four plantations in northern Colombia have been quarantined because of suspected infection with Fusarium wilt tropical race 4 (TR4), a fungus that kills plantsContinue Reading
Officials from the Department of Agriculture have been dispatched to a banana plantation in Chiang Rai province after a report of an alleged outbreak of Panama disease. The 2000 Rai plantation is operated by a Chinese company and is located in the Phaya Mengrai district of Chiang RaiContinue Reading
In an attempt to restrict the spread of the destructive Panama disease TR4 in Australia, the Queensland government recently granted the Australian Banana Growers’ Council (ABGC) AUD$12.1 million (over USD 8 million) in funding. However, starting this July it has asked that a cost-sharing arrangement be made between itselfContinue Reading
Banana growers farming with Panama disease tropical race 4 (Panama TR4) and who sell fruit to New South Wales are benefiting from a new interstate fruit certification agreement. Panama TR4 program leader Rhiannon Evans said Biosecurity Queensland had reached an agreement with the NSW DPI to allow accreditedContinue Reading
Fusarium wilt of watermelon is common problem in Florida where resistant varieties are not used, but it might occur to some extent even when resistant varieties are used. Fusarium wilt is cased by the fungus Fusarium oxysporum fsp. Niveum. Identification Typically, the first noticeable symptom is that oneContinue Reading
Researchers at the Queensland University of Technology, led by Professor James Dale, have developed Panama disease-resistant bananas by adding a gene found in a wild south-east Asian banana. The project began in 2012 to identify genes in bananas that were resistant to disease. After planting six lines ofContinue Reading