The Hindu Business Line : Fungal diseases threaten bananas — Asian varieties may escape due to polyclonal nature

THE threat of banana facing extinction within the next decade looms large due to the global epidemic of two fungal diseases — Black Sigatoka and Panama disease — that are rampaging through Central America, Africa and Asia.

The scientific community is seriously concerned about the threat since last week, particularly after the Belgian Plant Pathologist and Director of the International Network for the Improvement of Bananas and Plantains (INIBAP), Dr Emile Frison, sounded an alarm regarding this.

However, dispelling fears, the Director of the Tiruchi-based National Research Centre on Banana (NRCB), Dr S. Sathiamoorthy, told Business Line that the Asian system of growing banana was polyclonal in nature, unlike the monoclonal cultivation (growing one variety exclusively in a large stretch) practices that prevailed in Latin American and Carribean countries.

``Based on the regional and sub-regional demand, many varieties — comprising a mixture of resistant and susceptible ones to the predominant Black Sigatoka disease — are being grown. As such, the dangers involved in monoclonal cultivation are not faced by the banana growers in India,'' he said.

The Black Sigatoka is widely prevalent in banana plantations.

It plays havoc causing yield loss of 50 per cent besides peel splitting and yellowing. ``The cavendish bananas that dominate the export markets and made available off the shelf in super markets of importing countries in the US, Europe, Japan and Gulf countries, are highly susceptible to this disease,'' Dr Sathiamoorthy said.

``In the Latin American, Carribean, African and Asian countries, the soil borne fungus — Panama Disease (fusarium Wilt Race 4) — is prevalent, although there are no reports of the occurrence of this fungus in India so far,'' the NRCB Director said and pointed out that the cavendish banana was falling a prey to the Race 4 of the fungus in Australia, South Africa and South East Asia.

``It is only a matter of time before Race 4 reaches the hub of commercial production in Latin America and Carribean Islands. Panama disease coupled with Black Sigatoka can have a devastating effect on Cavendish banana plantations, especially in monoclonal cultivation,'' he added.

To keep the killers at bay, the commercial growers in those countries typically sprayed for over 40 times in a year (compared to just over 4 sprays in India, because of the polyclonal cultivation practices), he said and pointed out that they had reached a point of no return, for the fungus was swiftly developing resistance to chemicals.

``The genetic base of banana (Musa) though, is narrow. India harbours a wide range of Musa types, some of which are very valuable as gene source of resistance to major pests and diseases for use in developing improved varieties.''

The NRCB has been actively involved in collection, conservation and evaluation of over 1,000 accessions including wild species in the gene bank.

India, being the home for banana with widely varying agro climatic zones, could be the ideal location for establishment of an International Musa Research Institute (similar to the International Rice Research Institute at Philippines), he observed and stated that NRCB has been making clarion calls in international and national forums to strengthen the research on plant genetic resource conservation and utilisation, besides stressing the need for funds allocation.

``Intensification of research on plant genetic resource and crop improvement programmes involving classical and biotechnology approach can certainly help, in overcoming the doomsday scenario, as envisaged by the INIBAP Director,'' Dr Sathiamoorthy said.

According to him, varieties had not changed in centuries, but considering faster rate of evaluation of new fungal pathogens that could affect banana varieties (hitherto remained resistant), there was the need to strengthen research and safeguard banana plantations. ``Dr Frison's vision is not over pessimistic,'' he retorted and said that the research centre hoped that policy makers would allocate funds liberally, during the Tenth Plan for augmenting banana research, particularly in transgenics.

It may be noted that out of the 100 million tonnes of banana and plantain produced by 120 countries in the tropical and sub-tropical countries annually, India's production of 16 million tonnes was more than the exports in world trade (about 12.5 mt).

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