NOTE: Dr Emile Frison says the banana will be extinct in 10 years - and only GM can save it. He has been making the same claim for 10 years!
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Ecuador: Banana, in danger of extinction by sigatoka
Eluniverso
5/3/2011
http://bit.ly/jzJK8B

The banana, a plant which is threatened by the Black Sigatoka, will be extinguished within about ten years, if a genetically modified hybrid is not created to combat this fungus that endangers plantations worldwide, according to Emile Frison, researcher of the International Network for the Improvement of Banana and Plantain (INIBAP).

Frison said on elguanche.net, that "something that we can be sure of is that the Sigatoka will not lose its battle". "As soon as we can get a new fungicide, the disease becomes more resistance. Replacing the Cavendish banana (dominant variety today) for another type, by genetic engineering, is the only answer".

Juan Fuentes, manager of bananas at Farmagro in Ecuador, said that in recent years the entire value chain connected to the banana industry has needed to be very efficient to compete in this industry. The efforts to lower production costs for a box of bananas have been reflected in new developments to increase productivity, including programs to manage the Black Sigatoka.

According to the technician, control of this fungus in the country requires not only the application of protectant and systemic fungicides, but the development of contingency strategies to control it efficiently, maintaining the performance of fungicides and avoiding the presence of a resistance phenomenon which complicates the implementation of control methods and increases production costs.

For Fuentes, the resistance management in Ecuador should be implemented at a regional level and not at a local level, therefore he has recommended:

Designing management programs based on multi-sites protectant fungicides (working in various parts of the fungus).

Alternating fungicides with different chemical structures and fungicides with different mechanisms of action.

Applying fungicides to take action in one or two sites of the fungus mixed with multi-sites type protectants and limiting the number of applications of the same chemical per year.

He advised not to apply single-site fungicides more than two consecutive times .