DAVAO CITY The dreaded Fusarium wilt or Panama disease may have already ravaged more than a quarter of all the banana plantations in Mindanao, according to plantation owners in the region.
DAVAO CITY The dreaded Fusarium wilt or Panama disease may have already ravaged more than a quarter of all the banana plantations in Mindanao, according to plantation owners in the region.
Areas infected by Panama disease may have already doubled to 30,000 hectares, from 15,000 hectares identified by the Department of Agriculture (DA) in 2015, said Victor S. Mercado Jr., president and chief executive officer of the Marsman-Drysdale Agribusiness Group.
Planters said the spread of the disease was expected due to the lack of appropriate biosafety measures in farms owned by financially handicapped growers. Small banana plantations account for almost half of the total 88,667 hectares planted with the Cavendish variety.
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