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Paris,
January 23, 2003
PRESS RELEASE
Banana promises a fine future
Banana disappearance, announced in the British magazine The New Scientist, widely spread by mass media concerned the banana consumers as well as international banana micro-cosmos (producers, trading operators, researchers, among other groups). The banana crop has been threaten many times by no end of diseases and plagues (black sigatoka disease, weevil, nematode, Panama disease, among others), will disappear within next 10 years. Genetic transformation for obtaining genetically modified varieties in order to get resistance will be the solely solution.
CIRAD [1], thanks to its fruit and vegetable production department, is one of the most important public research organisms on banana cultivation worldwide. Therefore it has made certain statements on last issued comments. According to this body’s researchers, banana will still have large presence in tropical areas and its fruit will be one of the most consumed fruits in the world, which does not means it is not necessary to make a substantial efforts for improving this plant, taking in consideration its immense consumption both locally and for exporting purposes.
Banana will not disappear
Comments on disappearance of the Cavendish variety are exaggerated. In international exchanges, basically, 12 to 14 million MT are just about 13% of world production (95 million MT). Thanks God, the banana universe is not limited to this variety, but to a centennial cultivated worldwide. Banana for cooking (plantain, among others), for instance, have constituted the main food sustenance in important tropical regions. On the other hand, at least 1,500 crops has been identified, some of which are naturally resistant to diseases and plagues. Therefore, genetic diversity is not a threaten.
Genetic modifications are not the only tool
Obtaining varieties resistant to any disease by means of genetic modifications is one of the many tools the science has in order to improve banana. Certain scientists teams of the world, the CIRAD’s among them, devoted their time to this important process using conventional methods by crossing them with wild crops which are resistant to diseases. This working groups, not enough given the importance of this challenge, obtained by now varieties destined to local consumption in the southern producing villages. Others, aimed to cover large exporting markets, are in an advanced researching stage.
Moreover, it is also imperative to have sound culturing practices based on the knowledge on the plant’s agronomy as well as on its diseases and parasites biology. Researches in this sense have had a lesser public diffusion, but are as important as the genetic ones. The Antilles and the Occidental Africa banana growers manage sanitary risks struggling against harmful parasites and insects (lesser use of pesticides) by introducing stubble in their production system.
If you need
extra information, please contact:
Jacky GANRY,
Phone: (33) +04 67 61 71 53
Jacky.ganry@cirad.fr
or www.cirad.fr
If you need
copies of this press release locally, please contact:
Sergio SEMINARIO, SONICONTI S.A., Phone: +4 230 28 10
sonicont@ecua.net.ec
[1] A French scientific body specialized in agronomic research applied to tropical regions. The Research International Cooperation Center for Agricultural Development (CIRAD) mission is to contribute to rural development of tropical and subtropical countries my means of research, experimental applications, training both in France and abroad, and scientific and technical information. Researches of the CIRAD fruit and vegetable production departments address their actions to producing and trading tropical fruits and legumes both fresh and genetically modified.
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