Banana growers step up crop protection efforts v. diseases

CAVENDISH export umbrella group, the Pilipino Banana Growers and Exporters Association (PBGEA), is intensifying efforts against microbial threats to the Philippine export banana industry particularly fusarium wilt which crop scientists worldwide call "the most destructive fungal disease in bananas."

PBGEA executive director Stephen A. Antig said that the campaign was prompted by reports that some banana plants in Sto. Tomas in Davao del Norte; Maco in Compostela Valley, and Licanan, Sirib, Tamayong, Baguio and Tugbok in Davao City are showing symptoms of fusarium wilt infestation.

Post your reaction to the Manila hostage crisis

Crop protection specialist and vice-chair of the PBGEA's Technical Committee, Dr. Benny Corcolon, told industry stalwarts that "the threat largely comes from small independent growers whose pest-control management practices are not consistent according to prescribed protocols."

Corcolon said that independent growers do not have access to laboratory facilities to identify the disease and determine the right kind and mix of pest-control formulations to effectively control the disease.

Newly-elected PBGEA chair Madeline Dizon Marfori called on member-companies to help said small independent farmers in line with the association's commitment to its corporate responsibility of helping small farmers.

The fusarium wilt disease is also known as the Panama disease and is easily transported by footwear, clothing or farming tools; the same disease wiped-out more than 60,000 hectares of banana farms in Panama and in Honduras. It is also the bane of banana farms in Indonesia and Malaysia.

"Mindanao is one island-region globally known for its safe and healthy bananas and we must always exert our best efforts to keep it that way," Antig said.

He said that the region needs a bio-security program like those in Australia and New Zealand where sightings of plant diseases are immediately reported to a central command which outright deploys teams of specialists to check and control the reported diseases.

The aerial spraying of low-dose fungicide is among the frontline arsenal in said bio-security program.

Meanwhile, a suggestion for the establishment of a Philippine Banana Institute was given a boost with Regional Executive Director Director Carlos Mendoza of the Department of Agriculture-Region in Davao Region saying that "it is a concept worth developing."

The institute, largely a research and development facility, is among those projects pushed by the Davao City Chamber of Commerce and Industry during the forthcoming international summit on export bananas on November 5-7, 2010.