THE April 2014 issue of Agriculture Magazine is now being printed and is expected to be off the press very soon.

The cover features the big bunch of GCTCV 219 banana flanked by Dr. Agustin Molina of Bioversity International and Emil Diamante of Philippine Fresh Fruits Corporation of Davao City..

GCTCV 219 is a tissue cultured variant from Taiwan that is proving to be resistant to the Panama Wilt, a.k.a. Fusarium Wilt, which has been ravaging progressively commercial Cavendish plantations in Mindanao.

There are many other informative stories in the April issue. One of them is about Pat Acosta, an organic vegetable producer who is supporting a family comfortably, maintaining a healthy lifestyle by just cultivating 3,000 square meters in La Trinidad, Benguet.

Another inspiring story is about what’s new at the Costales Nature Farms which conducted its annual harvest festival last February 23. There’s also a story about a military camp that has developed an organic farm.

Agriculture Magazine is the most widely circulated magazine of its kind in the Philippines. It is published by the Manila Bulletin and edited by Zac B. Sarian, your blogger.

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A new banana variety is proving to be a promising answer to the very destructive Panama Wilt disease, a.k.a. Fusarium Wilt, that has been progressively infecting Cavendish plantations in Mindanao in recent years.

The new variety is a variant of tissue-cultured Giant Cavendish from Taiwan better known simply as GCTCV 219. In farmers’ fields that we visited last February 20, we witnessed robust uninfected plants of GCTCV 219 planted in infected fields side by side with the susceptible plants.

FRUIT OF RESISTANT VARIANT BANANA – Jonas Mauro, manager of Mauro Farm, shows ripe fruits of GCTCV 219 which are sweeter than the ordinary Cavendish currently grown in the Philippines. The fruit is now acceptable to the traditional international markets like Japan, China and elsewhere. In fact, the fruit of GCTCV 219 is classified as elegant-tasting banana that fetches a premium price.

For instance, in the Mauro Farm in Calinan, Davao City, rows of GCTCV plants are being grown side by side with the susceptible Grand Naine Giant Cavendish variety. The GCTCV plants are very healthy and virtually without infection whereas 80 percent of the ordinary Cavendish planted in a row just about two meters away have been wiped out by the Fusarium Wilt disease.

In a big portion of the PFFC farm of Luciano Puyod in Lasang, Davao City, only the tissue-cultured variants are standing unscathed by the Panama Wilt disease. Now, they are planting suckers of GCTCV 219 in the infected area without any chemical treatment of the soil. That is because so far there is no chemical that has been found to control or eradicate the fungus that can remain in the soil for many years.

The resistant variant was introduced from Taiwan by Bioversity International, an international NGO, through the initiative of Dr. Agustin Molina, a Filipino scientist who has a long track record working in the banana industry worldwide. He has been with Bioversity for many years now.

About five years ago, he collaborated with Lapanday, a commercial banana plantation in Davao City, so the variants (there are actually two that were selected) could be tested in the plantation of Lapanday where the Panama Wilt has been infecting their plants. The Philippine Council for Agriculture, Aquatic and Natural Resources Research and Development (PCAARRD) was also involved in the testing program.

When GCTCV 219 plants were observed to be resistant to the disease, an upscaling project was financed by the Bureau of Agricultural Research of the Department of Agriculture. With the funding, tissue-cultured planting materials were planted commercially in the fields of 20 farmers infected with Panama Wilt.

The results so far are very encouraging. Out of 3,000 tissue-cultured plants grown in the Mauro Farm in Calinan, only 6 plants caught the disease, according to Jonas Mauro who has been managing the plantation. The infected plants had yellowing of the leaves and two had almost totally succumbed to the disease. The leaves of the pseudostems of the two have dried out but as if by miracle, they produced healthy suckers that up to this day are growing as if there was no infection.

As part of the study, the dried leaves and main stems were not removed in the field. And one can see the healthy suckers that are more than five feet tall now growing at the base of the two infected mother plants.

The next step now, according to Dr. Molina, is to engage the private tissue culture laboratories to produce seedlings of GCTCV 219 for mass planting in areas that are infected with the disease. Dr. Molina said he can provide the tissue culture companies with disease-free tissue culture materials for mass production.

Dr. Molina believes that it is best for private tissue culture laboratories to produce the planting materials because government tissue culture labs, including those in colleges of agriculture, might not be able to produce the planting materials on a sustainable basis. He observes that some laboratories in government institutions have not been able to produce the materials on a sustainable basis.

So far, not only the results in the growing field are encouraging. What is also very encouraging is that the fruit is now well accepted in the international market, and probably even in the local market. Many consumers in the Philippines are not very enthusiastic about the locally produced Cavendish because they are considered too bland compared to lakatan.

The good thing about the fruit of GCTCV 219 is that it is sweeter than the ordinary Cavendish. In Japan it is considered an elegant-tasting banana that could fetch a premium price in the market. It is grown in the lowland that can compare with the sweetness of those grown in higher elevations.

The only shortcoming of GCTCV 219, if that could be considered a big minus, is that the fruits mature about two weeks later than the ordinary Cavendish. But that should not be a big problem, according to Dr. Molina.

Actually, another promising variant that is currently under test is GCTCV 218. At the Lapanday plantation, it had shown resistance to the disease so that it is being further tested in other sites through the collaboration of PCAARRD. When the tests will be concluded and the variant passes the tests in flying colors, it will be upscaled in farmers’ fields funded by PCAARRD.

Click here to full/original article

The new variety is a variant of tissue-cultured Giant Cavendish from Taiwan better known simply as GCTCV 219. In farmers’ fields that we visited last February 20, we witnessed robust uninfected plants of GCTCV 219 planted in infected fields side by side with the susceptible plants. Read more…

A catastrophic dilemma is now lurking in the midst of Asia’s banana industry.

The deadly Fusarium wilt (Panama wilt) Tropical Race 4 (TR4) disease has long emerged in China, Indonesia, Malaysia, Taiwan, and the Philippines. But of late, aggressive spread has been reported specifically in the Philippines and China, two major Cavendish producers in the world. 

A farm in the Philippines shows yellow patches indicating plants infected by Fusarium wilt TR4. This disease epidemic is imminent; thus, mitigation, prevention of spread and proper management are highly called for. (Photo: AB Molina, Bioversity International)

This was an alarming revelation during the consultation-workshop on the “Socio-economic Impacts of Fusarium Wilt Disease of Cavendish Banana in the Asia-Pacific Region” that was organized by the Philippine Council for Agriculture, Aquatic and Natural Resources Research and Development (PCAARRD), Food and Fertilizer Technology Center (FFTC) and the Banana Asia Pacific Network (BAPNET)-Bioversity International.

History tells of Fusarium wilt Race 1 wiping out the Gros Michel of Latin America in the 1950s, thus, the shift to the Cavendish variety that is resistant to Race 1. A more virulent strain, the Tropical Race 4 (TR4) which attacks the Cavendish, ravaged Taiwan’s Cavendish in the 1980s (but was confirmed to be TR4 only in the 1990s), and in the 1990s, Indonesia and Malaysia.

The TR4 strain had spread to Guangdong province, China in early 2000. Shortly after, the disease epidemic was observed in Davao City, the main Cavendish growing region in the Philippines. Dr. Molina, with other scientists, officially confirmed the destructive strain to be TR4 in 2008.

Since then, Bioversity has been raising alarm to the Cavendish stakeholders in Davao. Research in mitigating the disease epidemic has been initiated by Bioversity in partnership with government agencies such as PCAARRD, Department of Agriculture-Bureau of Agricultural Research (DA-BAR), Bureau of Plant Industry – Davao, University of the Philippines Los Baños (UPLB) and some banana growers.

In the workshop, Mr. Remigio Garcia, president of the Mindanao Banana Farmers and Exporters Association (MBFEA), reported that about 39% (5,900 hectares) of their members’ aggregate Cavendish plantation area had been infected. Three thousand (3,000) hectares of which had been abandoned.

This runs contrary to earlier media reports that the TR4 devastation goes by mere hundreds of hectares. This does not even account the potential disease infestation in big commercial plantations.

“I did not realize that the Fusarium wilt problem has already spread like a bushfire,” sadly remarked Dr. Molina, Regional Coordinator of Bioversity International-Asia, Pacific and Oceanic

The Pilipino Banana Growers and Exporters Association (PBGEA), which comprises big industry players, painted a bleak scenario saying that, “If left without rigid interventions, the rapid spread of the disease can eliminate the entire export banana industry in five (5) years’ time.”

In the event of an industry breakdown, the economic ramifications would surely create far-reaching social impacts to millions of Filipinos that depend on the industry. According to PBGEA, assuming a ratio of four (4) farmers working on a hectare of land, this would result in around 330,000 workers losing their jobs with annual wages totaling PhP42.3B. In a family of 5, 66,000 families would potentially lose their livelihood due to this disease epidemic.

MBFEA’s report stated that 6,000 workers had been displaced from the abandoned 3,000 hectares due to TR4.

These figures do not factor in other related industries involved in banana processing, packaging, marketing, financing, service providing and the like.

The million-dollar question now is: Are there ways to beat this formidable TR4 foe?

“At this point, it can no longer be a business-as-usual thing for the lucrative Cavendish banana industry. But always, there is hope,” said Dr. Molina.

In a study being conducted by Bioversity with the Lapanday Foods Corporation (a private banana exporter based in Davao City), DA-BAR and PCAARRD, some Cavendish varieties have shown resistance to TR4. Particular to the GCTCVs (Giant Cavendish Tissue Culture Variants) introduced by Bioversity from Taiwan, these varieties exhibited high disease resistance and acceptability in the international market due to its sweeter taste than the regular variety. This presents a viable option for small-scale independent Cavendish growers who are most affected by the disease epidemic due to limited technical capability and infrastructure compared with the big industry players.

Dr. Molina also cautioned that, “Appropriate and effective transboundary quarantine and surveillance laws should be in place and strictly implanted among countries within our own region and within countries. Australia has been very effective in keeping TR4 at bay and we could learn from them.”

“Now that the industry is up to a huge challenge, unified and concerted efforts have to come from all concerned sectors not only in the region but down the countries as well,” he firmly stated.

Socio-economic and banana production experts in the region participated in the training-workshop, which took place on 12-15 November 2013 and was strategically held in Davao City, Philippines, the major banana growing area of export banana in the country.

The importance of the workshop was highlighted by no other than the Director of FFTC, Dr. Yu-Tsai Huang, the Executive Director of PCAARRD, Dr. Patricio S. Faylon and Dr. Agustin Molina, Senior Scientist and Regional Coordinator of BAPNET-Bioversity. The consultation-workshop was designed to gather information on the social impacts of the Fusarium wilt epidemic in the Asia-Pacific region. Additionally, country strategies, institutional arrangements and collaborative strategies to address the wilt problem were lengthily discussed.

by Bernadette P. Joven, Bioversity International

Participants of the “Socio-economic Impacts of Fusarium Wilt Disease of Cavendish Banana in the Asia-Pacific Region” Consultation-Workshop held on 12-15 November 2013 at the Waterfront Insular Hotel, Davao City, Philippines. At the center are representatives of the organizing institutions namely, Dr. Patricio S. Faylon of PCAARRD, Dr. Yu-Tsai Huang of FFTC, Dr. Agustin B. Molinaof Bioversity International and Dr. Chih-Ping Chao, Chairman of BAPNET.

]]> http://banana-networks.org/bapnet/2014/02/10/inconvenient-truth-cavendish-industry-asia-philippines/feed/ 0 http://banana-networks.org/bapnet/2014/02/04/share-crop-knowledge/ http://banana-networks.org/bapnet/2014/02/04/share-crop-knowledge/#comments Tue, 04 Feb 2014 11:07:04 +0000 http://banana-networks.org/bapnet/?p=2236 Help identify stress-tolerant species

Bioversity International is conducting a survey (deadline 7 February)  to assess perspectives from around the world on which traditional crops are tolerant of stressful growing conditions. This is part of an effort to document and draw attention to the role of traditional crops in climate change adaptation under the IFAD NUS (Neglected and Underutilized Species) project and CGIAR Research Program on Climate Change Agriculture and Food Security (CCAFS).

There is a wide diversity of minor crops and landraces that form a valuable part of farmer’s and communities’ livelihoods. Greater use of these traditional crops could be integral in building resilience , as many are tolerant to harsh conditions linked to climate change such as extreme weather (drought, heat, flooding) and high pest pressure.

If you are an agricultural researcher, someone working with farmer communities, a farmer or a gardener, we appreciate your input into this investigation. We have 14 questions that take only a few minutes to answer.

The results will be useful in guiding decisions on which crops should receive greater research attention and be prioritized in climate change adaptation strategies.

More information here

Click here to start the survey

Read more about the database on Promusa blog

Look for publications on Musalit: (www.musalit.org) and take this opportunity to check if all your published papers on banana are recorded in the database. If you want to add a reference, correct an error in a record or provide missing information, contact Leïla Er-Rachiq

Dr. Bob Kemerait (left) and Dr. John Sherwood (right) with Dr. Agustin Molina

October 9, 2013 – Dr. Bob Kemerait (left), Professor at University of Georgia (UGA), and Dr. John Sherwood (right), Head of the Department of Plant Pathology at UGA and past president of the American Phytopathology Society, visited Bioversity International’s Asia-Pacific Office in the
Philippines yesterday. Dr. Gus Molina, Senior Scientist and Regional Coordinator of Bioversity for Asia and the Pacific, briefed them of the R&D status of Fusarium Wilt (TR4) in the region. Drs. Sherwood and Kemerait are in the country to participate in the 50th Anniversary Celebration of the Philippine Phytopathological Society.

Dr. Stoian with Bioversity Philippines team

Dr. Dietmar Stoian, Programme Leader of the Commodity Systems and Genetic Resources Programme of Bioversity International, based in Montpellier, France, visited the Philippines Office on 16-20 September. He met with the regional team and the project partners to keep abreast with current activities and regional initiatives. Field visit to project sites were also part of his itinerary.