THE fight against the dreaded Fusarium Wilt, also known as the Panama disease, will soon be over for banana farmers in Davao Region with the introduction of a new banana variety found to have high resistance to the disease.
This new variant is being cultivated by the Bureau of Plant and Industry (BPI).
The Department of Agriculture (DA)-Davao recently said that it is reproducing Giant Cavendish tissue-culture variant (GCTCV) 219 at the Davao National Research Center in Barangay Oshiro, Davao City, managed by the BPI-Davao.
DA-Davao Director Remelyn Recoter said the agency received some P102 million to eradicate the Fusarium Wilt, worsened by the typhoons that hit the region in the previous years.
Based on the study conducted by the BPI-Davao, she said the GCTCV 219 is 90 percent immune to the disease.
The dispersal of the seedlings will be given free to the small farmers, as they are the most vulnerable and can recover without getting any support to back them up.
She added, however, that part of the budget will be utilized for the crop-shifting, giving the farmers the chance to decide whether they want to avail of the free banana seedlings or rather plant the Panama disease-infested areas with others crops, including corn, coffee, and cacao.
"We will let not enforce crop-shifting. They can choose whether they want to avail of the resistant-variety or shift to other crops," she said.
She added that some infected areas, when planted with alternative crops, will have normal yield.
In a briefer, Fusarium Wilt is a destructive fungal disease of banana plants, which can be described as a "classic" vascular wilt disease and it invades the vascular tissue (xylem) through the roots, causing discoloration and wilting.
"It attacks banana plants of all ages and spreads mainly through the soil wherein it causes wilting and yellowing of the leaves," it added.
The total hectarage of banana plantations in Mindanao is 80,000 hectares with 200,000 direct workers. Of which, 24,000 hectares, or at least 30 percent, are comprised of the plantations of the small and medium banana growers.
Small farmers are the most vulnerable since they lack financial boost unlike the big banana companies.
Considering the scope of areas covered by Medium Banana Farmers and Exporters (MBFEA) members, Remigio Garcia, chairman of the association, said small and medium growers, or the independent growers, play a vital role in Mindanao's banana industry, which was only dominated by big players 10 years ago.
The greater challenge for both the big, the small, and the medium players is how to deal with Panama disease, which has already affected some plantation in Mindanao where a total of 3,000 has already been abandoned.