A group of scientists has embarked on a strategy to prevent the spread of a deadly banana fungal disease following an outbreak in Mozambique.
Tropical race 4 (TR4), a strain of the fungus Fusarium oxysporum, and responsible for a deadly banana wilt disease, was detected last year on a 1,500-hectare farm in Mozambique that grows the Cavendish banana variety for export. Scientists believe the disease was brought to the farm from Asia.
The African Consortium for TR4 (AC4TR4), a group of scientists formed in April this year after TR4 was detected in Africa for the first time, will seek ways to contain the deadly disease, according to experts who attended the annual review meeting of the CGIAR’s Research Program on Roots, Tubers and Bananas in Uganda on 29 September-3 October this year.
