BANANAS SLIPPING INTO EXTINCTION?

Bananas could face extinction within ten years, according to findings by the International Network for the Improvement of Banana and Plantain (INIBP) reported in the magazine New Scientist on 16 January. This would pose an economic problem to many countries who depend on banana exports and plantations as a main source of income, as well as to the approximately 140 million people mainly in Africa and Asia whose staple diet is based on bananas and plantains.

INIBP notes that bananas are already extinct in Cuba and that it could be globally extinct in 2013. The once dominant Gros Michel banana was wiped out in the 1950's by a soil fungus called Panama disease. The successor of the Gros Michel variety is now under attack by a fungus called black sigatoka. The sigatoka has become a global epidemic and has already reduced yields in Uganda by 40 percent and is now spreading through the Brazilian Amazon and the Far East. Experts expect yields in Brazil to decline by 70 percent because of the fungus. The crisis is due to the fact that almost all varieties of bananas today are sterile mutants and new fungus-free varieties cannot easily be produced. Because these sterile bananas cannot breed, the fruit cannot evolve to develop resistance to pests and diseases.

The head of INIBP, Emile Frison compared the banana crisis with the potato crisis in Ireland 150 years ago: "In some ways, the banana today resembles the potato before the blight brought famine to Ireland," she said, adding that "one thing we can be sure of is that the sigatoka won't lose in this battle." The scenario for half a billion people in Asia and Africa who depend on the banana for their livelihood is looking grim. Several scientists are now pushing large banana producers to invest in the development of genetically modified varieties, which are fungus resistant. However producers have until now refused to back up the research because of high costs and fears that consumers will not buy genetically modified bananas.

"Bananas Now Face Extinction", THE MONITOR NEWS, 18 January 2003. "Banana on slippery slope to extinction", DAILY NEWS, 16 January 2003. "Bananas could be extinct in 10 years: Scientists," THE TIMES OF INDIA, 16 January 2003.