Bad news in Africa
 

I hate to be the bearer of bad news but it looks like our banana loving friends in Africa are suffering at the moment.

BBC NEWS | Africa | Banana diseases hit African crops

This is very bad as it seems that bananas are their staple crop.

Re: Bad news in Africa
 

This is VERY sad news. Bananas and plantain are a staple for many of the population in that continent. We have homless people here that live like royaly compared to some of the African countries populations. Here's hoping that there is a sloution.

Re: Bad news in Africa
 

I'd say it's time to cash-in some of those diamond mines, gold, platinum, & casinos, call Bill Gates, get the Orkin man & run to the rescue. But even at that, how long before the new strain of Panama Wilt fungus makes it's way over there?
Might be a perfect test-site for FHIA to come up with a more resistant, commercial cultivar.

Re: Bad news in Africa
 

this is why the FHIA programs are so inportint!

Re: Bad news in Africa
 

Now this is pretty *****y boys and girls. There are 4 most important crops that are grown over the world (and used respectively):

1) wheat
2) rice
3) potatoes
4) bananas

If there is a country with one of these favored above others, it's the most dangerous situation, because there are no viruses that would/could go interspecies among them.

The secod bad thing is that one of those viruses that make havoc in Africa is the "The bunchy top" virus, which, if I watched Scot's documentary carefully, has no way of controlling other than elimination and growing more resistant varieties (not resistant, more resistant than other!).
Furthermore there are other things, like Panama disease 4 and similar, much stronger viruses and diseases, which strike the entire banana plantains all over the world.
And not every country and every farmer in the country can afford expensive pesticides, daily rounds to go check and eliminate diseased banana stalks... (to be honest, most of the banana cultivation areas belong to the economically poorest in the world)

Bananas are the weakest plant/crop of all those 4 named above, so these things are bound to happen, they are just too weak to fight on their own in many cases (many times thanks to intervention from mankind) and I don't think that any pesticide or treatment is a solution. It will only postpone the inevitable, what so many people fear... the fall of banana as a major plantain crop in tropical countries. It will be substituted with rice or other, much more resistant, yet important crop and will be cultivated only in some local, small numbers.

I'm against any interevention from the mankind in banana countries. Yes, those people depend on it, that's the reason, but trying to help the nature has only one effect - we are helping those viruses and diseases to perfect themselves on our pesticides and other controls.

One problem's gone, even worse appears.

Yes, they will make even more perfect varieties and once the viruses adapt on FHIA bananas, others are screwed too. ;)

Re: Bad news in Africa
 

I got wonder how vulnerable the funding for the FHIA programs are given the unrest in Honduras....

Re: Bad news in Africa
 

What unrest?

Re: Bad news in Africa
 

Google "Honduras - president".....basically a coup...

Re: Bad news in Africa
 

I don't see a problem, typical elections Central America. They don't vote, but the ones with bigger guns take the power. Nothing unusual. It works the same way in "civilized countries", but people will get a choice from 2 seemingly different candidates (and nobody else). :D

Why would scientific research (on which Honduras depends) be abandoned because of it? That would be rather contraproductive, ay? :) ;)

Re: Bad news in Africa
 

Yeah, you'd think so..but having studied, lived and worked in Latin America since 1971, I must say that surprises abound.

Re: Bad news in Africa
 

Right on target! But "seemingly different"? I've never been able to tell them apart :confused:. And you're right, anything that makes money Will be preserved.... at gunpoint if necessary.
Thanx for the info on crops :). From history I've read, they did the same thing to Oklahoma during the big Dust Bowl by not rotating crops & cutting down all the trees.... Turned the state into something worse than a desert.

Re: Bad news in Africa
 

These diseases are real problems, but it would be silly to think there has been nothing done about them. They have been around long before this little article came out and thousands of researchers all over the world have already been working on correcting them for years and helping the farmers in practical ways. The diseases they mention specifically are Banana Bunchy Top Virus (BBTV) and Banana Xanthomonas Wilt (BXW), do some research on those names and you will see how much work is being put into combating them.

Re: Bad news in Africa
 

I know people have been working around the clock to find some immune specimens or even treatment for quite some time. I think it's a noble job, but only time will tell; there is only few other crops in the world, that would be so studied, documented, experimented with and you know what else...
It's a whole science around it and truth be told, there's less Slovak books on pomology than articles about bananas in bioversity (and fruit has been our staple crop for... say 1500 years. +/- 100 years). :D :D :D
I would like to hope that someone will find a treatment, but there's almost no doubt that even more dangerous and damaging disease will be discovered in some plantain area and soon will spread to the entire industry... It's a neverending vicious cycle once mankind began which such an extensive cultivation and treatment.

Re: Bad news in Africa
 

It's not just in Africa. This has been a problem for a while in Asia as well. In Taiwan, some farmers cycle their crops so that they plant new plantlets from TC every two to three years, destroying their previous crops prior to planting new ones.

In the Philippines, a farmer friend of mine has been trying to get me virus free materials, but since we had some difficulty finding a freight forwarder, the materials he collected for me last February had to be planted in his farm and most have already borne fruits. So he decided that he was going to get them TC'd while were waiting to find a shipping agent. It was then the he found out that most of his over 10 thousand plants are infected by BBTV. For every 10 corms he sends to the lab, he'd be lucky if he can get one or two clean ones. It could be also, though, that his farmhands are collecting from the same mat over and over. He has since instructed them to numerically mark their sources with matching specimens.

His plants look healthy, though. And here, he thought that by paying for his neighbors' replacement plants in order to convince them to destroy their infected plants, he could avoid getting his plants infected. Small farmers are ignorant of the diseases and the risks of maintaining infected plants. My friend has started utilizing beneficial predatory insects on his farm just this month. He has also been spraying chili and detergent solution weekly. But he has had to be more watchful of some of his workers because recently, some of them have just been dumping their load on the ground, and not actually spraying the plants. No wonder, he said they get back so quickly.

Re: Bad news in Africa
 

Manmade (deep pockets) or natural, it's a crying shame the worlds food supply is either being attacked by viruses or diseases.