14/2/2003
UN Food Agency Denies Bananas Are on the Verge of Extinction

Responding to reports in the media that bananas may become extinct within 10 years, the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) has acknowledged that the most widely grown commercial banana is indeed threatened by disease but that if producers promote greater genetic diversity among their crops this threat to bananas can be circumvented.

The Rome based Food Agency has pointed out that small-scale farmers around the world grow a wide range of bananas that are not threatened by the disease currently attacking the bananas sold mostly in Europe and North America. The Cavendish banana, found mostly on western supermarket shelves, has been under attack in some Asian countries by a new strain of Fusarium wilt, also known as "Panama disease."

"What is happening is the inevitable consequence of growing one genotype on a large scale," said Eric Kueneman, Chief of FAO's Crop and Grassland Service. The Cavendish banana is a "dessert type" banana that is cultivated mostly by the large-scale banana companies for international trade. The Cavendish banana is important in world trade, but accounts for only 10 percent of bananas produced and consumed globally, according to FAO. Virtually all commercially important plantations grow this single genotype. Its vulnerability is inevitable and not unexpected. The Cavendish's predecessor, the Gros Michel, suffered the same fate at the hands of fungal diseases, so this is a warning that we may need to find a replacement for the Cavendish banana in the future, FAO said.

So far the problem has only been seen in Southeast Asia. However, Mahmoud Solh, Director of FAO's Plant Production and Protection Division, warned: "The consequences of the problem will be more dramatic if this phenomenon reaches Latin America and the Caribbean, where banana is a major plantation crop and a source of employment and income for a large section of the population."

Fortunately, small-scale farmers around the world have maintained a broad genetic pool which can be used for future banana crop improvement, say the agency. The banana is essentially a clonal crop with many sterile species, which makes progress through conventional breeding slow and difficult. Because of this, new breeding methods and tools, including biotechnology, will be helpful to develop resistant bananas for cultivation. However this did not necessarily mean the use of genetic modification, FAO said.