Colombia: Fusarium, the fungus that haunts banana plantations in the Caribbean

Published 2022년 12월 13일

Tridge summary

Union representatives from Colombia's banana plantations are urging the national government to increase measures to control the spread of the Fusarium fungus, a disease that poses a significant threat to the country's banana cultivation industry. This industry is vital to the economy of thousands of families in Colombia, generating around 350 million dollars in foreign currency annually. The government and the Association of Banana Growers of Magdalena and La Guajira (Asbama) have been working together since 2019 on an agreement aimed at preventing and mitigating the risk of this disease. The fungus, Fusarium oxysporum f. sp. cubense (Foc), is known for its resistance and survival in soil, making it a challenging disease to manage.

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Original content

Faced with the winter wave, the union representatives of the banana plantations ask to reinforce the measures to contain the spread of the Fusarium fungus. Banana cultivation is a key activity for the development and economy of thousands of families in the country, it provides the Colombian Caribbean with around 45,000 direct and indirect jobs and leaves about 350 million dollars a year in foreign currency for Colombia. In addition, Magdalena and La Guajira are the departments that export half of this fruit to international markets. Given this context, the banana growers in this region of the country ask the National Government not to lower its guard on issues such as phytosanitary surveillance for the timely detection of the Fusarium Race 4 Tropical disease (FocR4T) and to take contingency actions. José Francisco Zúñiga Cotes, Executive President of Asabama, warns that the third phase of the agreement signed between the Colombian Agricultural Institute (ICA) will conclude on ...

Source: MXContexto