However, Cavendish bananas — from the United Kingdom
— rescued the ubiquitous fruit after Gros Michel was lost, stepping in as a
clone. But soon, even they were under threat, with crops destroyed
in Taiwan
just mere years later. It continued to spread throughout China and later in Indonesia
and Malaysia .
Now the dreaded killer of the yellow fruit is back,
threatening global exports from southeast Asia and Africa .
It’s even been found in Australia
where the crop was once lost in the 1800s.
The reason the threat is so pervasive and serious is because
bananas are seedless: they are basically clones. Though there are about
1,000 different varieties of bananas, the Cavendish
accounts for 95 per cent of banana exports. And if Panama Disease wipes
them out, so far there are no replacements.
The authors of the study are sounding the alarm. Something
needs to be done.
“Developing new banana cultivars, however, requires major
investments in research and development and the recognition of the banana as a
global staple and cash crop (rather than an orphan crop) that supports the
livelihoods of millions of small-holder farmers,” they wrote.
Until the industry — and science — comes up with a solution,
you may have to start finding other sources of potassium soon.
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