Project Description
A WAKE-UP CALL FOR THE BANANA FOOD SYSTEM
FUSARIUM WILT TROPICAL RACE 4
When in November 2013 the fungal disease Fusarium wilt Tropical Race 4 (TR4) made the transcontinental leap to Mozambique, the banana industry woke up. TR4 could no longer be written off as ‘far away’ or ‘Asian’. No longer as a threat contained to Taiwan, Malaysia, Indonesia, China or the Philippines. In the years after 2013 the disease proved unstoppable. Reality hit when the disease was officially confirmed in La Guajira, Colombia in August 2019, on at least 4 plantations at a considerable distance from one another.
THE SPREAD OF THE DISEASE IS A MULTI-FACED DISASTER
SOIL DISEASE THAT KILLS BANANA PLANTS
TR 4
THE BANANA IS A KEY COMMODITY
APPROXIMATELY 400 MILLION PEOPLE DEPEND ON BANANAS
The spread of the disease is a multi-faced disaster. Bananas are not just an export product, looking all sunny and yellow in the lunchboxes of kids in the West. In many countries the banana or plantain is a key commodity for local markets and absolutely vital for food security. Worldwide, only 15% of banana production is exported; 85% is for local consumption. Approximately 400 million people depend on bananas and plantains for their livelihoods or as their staple food.
The main banana industry is betting on the development of a TR4 resistant Cavendish banana, but the results of this effort are highly uncertain. Even if they succeed, then what? Re-planting banana plantations costs between US$ 10,000 and US$ 20,000 per hectare. Not exactly feasible for small producers. And if large parts of the industry do switch to the new Cavendish, we will soon again have vast areas covered with a single variety again, making the trade extremely vulnerable to the next disease, perhaps Fusarium Tropical Race 5.
The spread of the disease is a multi-faced disaster. Bananas are not just an export product, looking all sunny and yellow in the lunchboxes of kids in the West. In many countries the banana or plantain is a key commodity for local markets and absolutely vital for food security. Worldwide, only 15% of banana production is exported; 85% is for local consumption. Approximately 400 million people depend on bananas and plantains for their livelihoods or as their staple food.
The main banana industry is betting on the development of a TR4 resistant Cavendish banana, but the results of this effort are highly uncertain. Even if they succeed, then what? Re-planting banana plantations costs between US$ 10,000 and US$ 20,000 per hectare. Not exactly feasible for small producers. And if large parts of the industry do switch to the new Cavendish, we will soon again have vast areas covered with a single variety again, making the trade extremely vulnerable to the next disease, perhaps Fusarium Tropical Race 5.
MANNING THE BOUNDARIES
To keep TR4 at bay, preventive measures like ‘come clean, go clean’ and strict biosecurity regulations are the motto on the plantations for the moment. Infection is warded off through education, training and visitor control at the farmgate. An array of measures is being taken: footbaths, disinfection of vehicles, no entry with own footwear or boots on the plantation, clean and certified plant material, fences around the entire plantation…
For large commercial enterprises, these measures are extremely costly. For thousands of small banana producers, taking these measures is just impossibly complicated and expensive.
To achieve economies of scale, a territorial approach seems the obvious way, with the participation of the public sector and local authorities. But this requires organisation in sometimes complicated local platforms, leadership and bottom-up pressure, leaving the fort far from safe for the moment.
FIRST COMPANY IN EUROPE
RE-THINKING THE FOOD SYSTEM
All this is reason to fundamentally question the present production model of bananas and other foods as cheap mass commodities, achieved through the large-scale use of fertilizer and pesticides. Fusarium TR4 is a soil-borne disease. We have much to learn about soils, especially about soil biodiversity. The industry is just beginning to recognise that soils represent much more than structure and chemistry; soils are living organisms, crucial for all living things on Earth – all of life begins with the soils.
There are many question to contemplate: maybe it is time to grow bananas in a different way? Seeing that the original habitat of the banana plant is the forest, maybe we should turn to biodiverse agroforestry systems, using beneficial micro-organisms and compost. And why do we depend so strongly on the Cavendish, when there are hundreds of edible banana varieties? Can the model of heavily under-priced bananas be maintained in the long run? Do we want it to? As we now see, this way of doing things makes it very difficult to take preventive measures and, more in general, to strive for a sustainable banana that is good all around: good for the people, good for biodiversity and good for the climate.
All this is reason to fundamentally question the present production model of bananas and other foods as cheap mass commodities, achieved through the large-scale use of fertilizer and pesticides. Fusarium TR4 is a soil-borne disease. We have much to learn about soils, especially about soil biodiversity. The industry is just beginning to recognise that soils represent much more than structure and chemistry; soils are living organisms, crucial for all living things on Earth – all of life begins with the soils.
There are many question to contemplate: maybe it is time to grow bananas in a different way? Seeing that the original habitat of the banana plant is the forest, maybe we should turn to biodiverse agroforestry systems, using beneficial micro-organisms and compost. And why do we depend so strongly on the Cavendish, when there are hundreds of edible banana varieties? Can the model of heavily under-priced bananas be maintained in the long run? Do we want it to? As we now see, this way of doing things makes it very difficult to take preventive measures and, more in general, to strive for a sustainable banana that is good all around: good for the people, good for biodiversity and good for the climate.
ALL THIS IS REASON TO FUNDAMENTALLY QUESTION THE PRESENT PRODUCTION MODEL OF BANANAS AND OTHER FOODS AS CHEAP MASS COMMODITIES
WE WILL WASTE NO TIME
Do we really want to continue with a banana food system that puts the future of the banana itself at stake? Isn’t it time to address the supermarkets in a more forceful way? Especially the price fighters, who persist in their race to the bottom. It seems high time to put pressure on the fairer prices in the organic and fair trade market segment.
We are keen to point our own producers in what we feel is the right direction. With the support of our technical team, AgroFair is committed to prevention. We want to help in the promotion of biosecurity measures at farm and territorial level. The ‘TR4 add-on’ of GlobalGAP that we wrote about in earlier reports is a good instrument for this. It saves us valuable time in our race against TR4. Time that could prove to be critical.
We will waste no time. Together with other actors in the sector, we will continue to ask the most fundamental questions and look for the answers. Both in theory and in the practice in which we are rooted. And we don’t stop at asking. Baby steps sometimes, great leaps at others, at AgroFair we are always moving in what we know to be the right direction. Honest to goodness.