Lapanday’s gesture to small growers lauded, too
THE Pilipino Banana Growers and Exporters Association (PBGEA) has lauded the kind gesture shown by the Tagum Agricultural Development Co., Inc. (TADECO) to small firms owning banana plantations in the continuing fight against fusarium wilt, also known as Panama Disease.
The dreaded pathogen called Fusarium oxyporum f. sp. cubense (Foc) wiped out banana plantations in Panama and other countries in Central and South America when it hit these areas as early as 1950.
PBGEA executive director Stephen Antig told Davao newsmen that the deadly fungi rampaged in Davao del Norte starting in 2013 particularly hitting small banana plantations.
By 2015, Antig said, the disease had devastated a total of 15, 507.73 hectares Cavendish export bananas. Davao del Norte was the hardest hit with close to 14,000 hectares.
The industry’s big players such as TADECO and Lapanday Food Corporation reacted to the worsening crisis by intensifying their research on the disease and developing a technology against it.
Antig said that at this time, inroads have been achieved in the fight against the disease, saying that at least 25 percent of the problem has been solved, although there is need to continue research and development in how to manage the disease.
What is laudable, Antig said, is the gesture of big companies like TADECO and Lapanday in sharing their findings to the small plantations whose owners cannot afford the big expense involved in developing the cure for fusarium.
He said these big companies have openly shared to the small guys their findings about the disease as well as the disease-resistant planting materials they have developed.
The Department of Agriculture which has joined the fight is also distributing plant materials to the small banana growers as they continue the progress of the fight against the deadly plant disease.
