Banana moko, a silent threat in Ecuador

When talking about threats in the banana industry, concern is focused on the imminent and fearsome arrival of the deadly fusarium, but little is said about moko, an equally devastating disease, which has been silently taking root in fruit crops . Infectious foci have already been reported in plantations in 12 provinces. Phytopathologists qualify moko or bacterial wilt as one of the phytosanitary problems with great economic impact on banana and plantain crops in tropical and subtropical areas of the world. In Ecuador it was detected for the first time in 1978 in the Amazon (Napo), but today, says Víctor Hugo Quimí, a banana expert, it is present in areas of Esmeraldas, Manabí, Los Ríos, Cotopaxi, El Oro, Santo Domingo and Sucumbíos. . Quimí, who has been working with organic products for some time to mitigate the problem, explains that this bacterium, unlike other diseases, attacks the plant in different ways, causing the death of its leaves and discoloration inside its stem, thus ...