120 stakeholders gathered at an international
conference in Maputo, Mozambique to discuss the current status and future of
the banana industry in Mozambique, which has been threatened by the outbreak of
two diseases, Panama Disease Tropical Race 4 (Foc TR4) and Banana Bunchy Top
Virus (BBTV).
Mozambique is the first African country to be infected
with the Foc TR4 strain of Panama disease, which has been present since 2013 in
the north of the country. BBTV has been present in Mozambique for more than a
decade, with the most recent and severe outbreak since 2016 in the south.
Though 1,500 hectares have been lost to Foc TR4 on a commercial banana
plantation in the north, Mozambique currently still has more than 17 commercial
growers and thousands of smallholder farmers who produce banana for both
consumption and sale. If the spread of these diseases continues in Mozambique,
it could threaten production in all of the commercial banana plantations as
well as smallholder banana producers, thus threatening food security of local
communities.
The conference, organised by the nonprofit
organisation TechnoServe and the Mozambican Ministry of Agriculture and Food
Security (MASA) with funds from the United States Department of Agriculture
(USDA), focused on sharing best practices from the efforts in Mozambique to
prevent, control and contain these two diseases. Experts from around the world,
including from the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation and
Bioversity International, Stellenbosch University and the Agricultural Research
Council in South Africa, spoke about the origins of the recent outbreak and
strategies to address the challenges facing global banana production in light
of these diseases. Researchers and scientists from the Philippines, China and
India highlighted the experiences of controlling Panama disease in their own
countries; similarly researchers and scientists from Cameroon, Burundi,
Australia, and South Africa highlighted the experiences of controlling BBTV in
their own countries. During the opening session, Laura Geller, the Senior
Agricultural Attaché for the USDA, spoke about the United States’ role in
supporting the Mozambican banana industry, which has been a key player in the
past few years.
“In 2017, the US Department of Agriculture sought to
help the government of Mozambique to address Panama Disease and BBTV with a
$4.5 million government to government grant. The objective of the project is to
reduce the impact of these diseases on the Mozambican banana industry, both in
the North and South,” Ms. Geller said, “USDA is proud to be part of this
important work, but we know there is much more to be done to contain the spread
of plant diseases.”Similarly the Mozambican Minister of Agriculture and
Food Security Higino de Marrule, who officially opened the conference,
highlighted the need for continued cooperation and support to control these
diseases.
In fact, throughout the conference the urgent need for
continued financial support to the industry became clear, as the primary
project that had been supporting the industry, financed by the USDA and
implemented by TechnoServe with MASA, comes to a close in early 2020.Arnaldo Ribeiro, the Chairman of BananaMoz Association
of commercial banana producers in Mozambique, described BananaMoz’s work over
the past 2 years to establish two Public-Private Partnerships to create systems
for monitoring the spread of both diseases in the north and the south. However,
he noted that these projects, though of paramount importance for the survival
of the industry, cannot continue without further funding.
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