Banana disease puts Peru and Ecuador on alert and experts call for public-private cooperation to tackle the pest

After the presence of the disease that has attacked banana plantations on several continents in recent years was confirmed in northern Peru, alerts were issued among agricultural officials in that country and in neighboring Ecuador.

The new scenario also threatens other nations in Latin America and the Caribbean, with a strong presence among the largest banana producers and exporters in the world. As a result, experts demanded a deepening of public-private cooperation to face a pest that punishes a crop that is essential for global food security and the subsistence of millions of small agricultural producers.

Peru's National Agricultural Health Service (SENASA) reported this month that the Tropical Race 4 (TR4) strain of the Fusarium fungus was detected in a half-hectare banana plantation in the department of Piura. A phytosanitary emergency was immediately declared, implying strict prevention measures to prevent the disease from spreading to other banana plantations, which cover 170.000 hectares in the country.

In Ecuador, controls and spraying of vehicles crossing the border were quickly implemented to prevent the disease from entering. Until this month, Colombia was the only country in Latin America and the Caribbean where TR4 had been detected.

Robert Córdova, Undersecretary of Agricultural Production at the Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock of Ecuador, requested the holding of a regional meeting in Peru to coordinate the actions of several countries in whose economies bananas play an important role.

At the Third Hemispheric Meeting of Ministers and Secretaries of Agriculture of the Americas, held on April 15 and organized by the Inter-American Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture (IICA) and FAO, Córdova referred to the need to “establish a single agenda that allows us to face the threat that is already present in Colombia and this new alert that occurs in Peru due to the presence of the Fusarium fungus”.

Peru's Minister of Agrarian Development and Irrigation, Federico Tenorio, reported that his government is monitoring the situation in the north of the country and, in response to Córdoba's proposal, promised to contact the agriculture ministers of banana-producing countries in the hemisphere “to organize this event as soon as possible”.

TR4 is a soil-borne disease that devastates banana plantations for which, today, there is no treatment. It is the biggest threat in more than half a century to a crop that is especially important for vulnerable populations, who obtain up to a quarter of the calories they consume daily from bananas. Although it originated in Asia, TR4 moved west and, in 2019, was detected in Colombia.

Currently, the only effective way to stop the spread of the disease is to burn the affected land, which cannot be used again, as the disease may reappear.

Global partnership against Fusarium TR4 ready to work in Peru

With the aim of containing this true “banana pandemic”, the Global Partnership for Cooperation in the Fight against Fusarium TR4 was formally established last February, which aims to defeat the disease by preventing its spread, investing in genetic development and educating consumers.

The coalition is home to 25 institutions and includes representatives from the private sector, academia, civil society organizations, state entities and international organizations. Among them is the Inter-American Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture (IICA), which was elected by the other members to serve as the secretariat of the Partnership's Executive Committee.

The Partnership informed the Peruvian authorities that it is available to collaborate in planning concrete actions to face the crisis scenario.

The Director General of IICA, Manuel Otero, highlighted the importance of establishing the Global Partnership for Cooperation in the Fight against Fusarium TR4 to “save bananas and the livelihoods and nutrition of millions of people”, offering governments in Latin America and the Caribbean “the support of a strong coalition integrated by technical cooperation, science, the private sector and academia to seek solutions for a disease whose expansion has strong economic and social impacts, given the banana's link with global food security ”.

In a letter sent to Minister Tenorio, the Coordinator of the Partnership Secretariat, Gabriel Rodríguez, also IICA Representative in Paraguay, proposed holding a video conference to present the work that the coalition has been carrying out and detail “the specific actions that we would be in a position to implement quickly".

Expert recommendations

“Countries where TR4 is detected must collect data and adopt transparency and information exchange policies with other countries and international organizations. It must be ensured that samples taken in the field are analyzed using the latest molecular diagnostic methods. It is also important to draw up risk maps that identify canals, rivers or areas prone to flooding, as they facilitate the spread of the disease,” said scientist Gert Kema, Director of the Phytopathology Laboratory — the science that studies plant diseases — at prestigious Wageningen University in the Netherlands.

“Around the areas where TR4 was detected — he added —, quarantine and disinfection strategies must be implemented for vehicles, tools and personnel who have been in contact. Anyone visiting the plantations should change their shoes when arriving and leaving, to ensure they are clean,” he added.

Kema emphasized the need to develop a training program that includes all actors in the banana chain, so that they can become involved in prevention.

“The epidemiology of TR4 shows that its spread is inevitable. The plague roamed Southeast Asia for years without being detected and, after Wageningen University developed its rapid diagnostic method in 2014, it was discovered in more than ten countries,” said the scientist.

The spread was favored by the monoculture of the Cavendish banana variety, which today covers approximately 50% of global banana production, 95% of export markets and is the only one that is massively commercialized in Latin America and the Caribbean, as well as in the West. in general.

Therefore, Kema highlighted that one of the missions that governments must fulfill for the future is to ensure the sustainability of banana cultivation through the adoption of other varieties that are resistant to TR4 and the development of new technologies.

The expert warned that the damage that this disease could cause to global banana production should not be underestimated: “TR4 is a threat to domestic and export markets, job security and the well-being of rural territories” .

In turn, Ronald Guendel, Global Director of Food Value Chains at Bayer's Crop Science Division, warned that TR4 “is a disease in banana cultivation that spreads tremendously quickly and could wipe out plantations in just a few years. . Public-private collaboration is essential to seek solutions and make immediate decisions.”

“Bayer — he added — is fully committed to the banana sector and, through the Partnership, to seek chemical, biological and genetic solutions to protect this crop that is so important from an economic and food security point of view.”