By Zac B. Sarian The search for a variety that is resistant to the very aggressive Tropical Race 4 (TR4) Fusarium Wilt disease that has been affecting the old Giant Cavendish and Williams varieties has been continuing since 2005, and the most promising result so far has been the GCTCV 218, a tissue culture variant […]
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Fusarium Wilt in Vietnam
Two years ago (November 2015), I went to visit northern Vietnam with Dr Tranh of FAVRI and Dr. Chao of TBRI. We visited a 300-hectare plantation of Tall Williams in Lao Cai province, a hilly plantation in the border of Vietnam and Yunnan province of China. It was a very panoramic plantation curbed on the […]

Bioversity/ BAPNET/ NARS/ Industry Collaboration Outcomes
Saving the Cavendish industry with Foc TR4 resistant variety. A new hope in sustaining Cavendish production and trade using GCTCVs, originally developed by the Taiwan Banana Research Institute through selection from Tissue Culture somaclonal variants. These were shared by TBRI through Bioversity International/BAPNET; evaluated and promoted through public-private partnerships in the Philippines with leadership and coordination […]

Public Private Partnerships in the management of Foc Tropical Race 4 in the Davao Region, Philippines
Bioversity with DA-RFU XI, Bureau of Plant Industry and DA-BAR project donors visiting the commercial farms in Davao City adopting the use of the Foc resistant somaclones GCTCV 218 and GCTCV 219 in their Cavendish plantations to manage Foc TR4.

The use of resistant varieties in an integrated management of epidemics of Fusarium Wilt Tropical Race 4 in the Philippines
Gus Molina, Emily Fabregar, Noel Perpetua, Benny Corcolon, Lorna Herradura, Susan Razo and Vida Grace Sinohin A.MOLINA@cgiar.org Dr. Agustin Molina, Senior Scientist and Regional Coordinator for Asia and the Pacific of Bioversity International, presenting a keynote paper entitled, “The use of resistant varieties in an integrated management of epidemics of Fusarium Wilt Tropical Race 4 […]

Research and production experiences in Asia suggest that Panama disease (Foc TR4) will not destroy the Cavendish banana industry
Dr. Agustin B. Molina Bioversity International/Banana Asia Pacific Network Western media is fixated with reporting that Panama Disease caused by Fusarium oxysporum f. sp. cubense (Foc TR4) will lead to the disappearance of Cavendish bananas from supermarkets. This is in reaction to certain researchers predicting the unavoidable incursion of the fungus into Latin American banana […]

Foc TR4 resistant varieties that may save the banana industry
Public-private research collaboration in addressing the problem of the banana industry threatened by a fungal disease. Philippine banana export is more than $ 800 million annually providing more than 300,000 direct employment. This disease also threatens big Cavendish plantations in China, Taiwan, Indonesia, Australia, and potential threat to India the biggest banana producer in the […]

Assessment of Musa genetic resources for their host reaction to Foc TR4
In China, there is now an on going evaluation of 14 accessions from the International Transit Center (ITC) for Musa genetic resources. The project on the assessment of Musa genetic resources for their host reaction to Foc TR4, towards understanding the genetic base of host-pathogen interactions is now on its way to investigate the host reaction […]

Public Private partnerships in the Philippines
(In photo: Research partnerships with Dole-STANFILCO and Lapanday Food Corporation. GCTCV 218 in the background) (In photo: Research partnerships with Dole-STANFILCO, Lapanday Food Corporation and DA-Bureau of Plant Industry. Background is GCTCV 219 planted in 9 hectares farm infested with Foc TR4 in Calinan, Davao City) (In photo: Fusarium wilt of banana in the background, […]

Congratulations Doc Gus!
Bioversity International recognizes the 17 years of dedicated and outstanding research outputs and impacts of research of Gus Molina – Sr. Scientist and Regional Coordinator for Asia and the Pacific). Stephan Weise, Deputy Director General of Bioversity (Rome), accorded the recognition and token of appreciation (Rome, Italy) during the Science Week meeting of Bioversity in […]