A banana its "pandemic" we can lose the favorite fruits

It turns out that in recent years, health problems appeared not only in humans but also in bananas. The distribution of strain of the fungus Fusarium TR4, destroying banana plantations in Asia, Africa and South America has led to the closure of many of the plantations and treacherous microorganism is not going to stop. Scientists give disappointing forecasts – soon the world could be left without bananas, and for a long time.

The fungus is destructive for bananas, called "Panama disease", although his birthplace is not Central America, and Southeast Asia. Worst of all, the strain of Fusarium TR4 is selective, it is the most popular varieties of bananas. More likely to suffer plantation of Cavendish varieties, the most unpretentious and popular in the world.

It is on the Cavendish bananas accounted for 95% of the banana market on the planet and he was the most vulnerable to the disease. For us bananas – a familiar addition to the diet, vitamin, tasty and affordable fruits, and for the millions of inhabitants of the planet they are the basis of the diet and the main source of income.

Fusarium fungus TR doesn't come from Panama, where he is now raging the most. Scholars believe that he was born in Malaysia and Indonesia, where the first foci of plants appeared in the 90‑ies. The Islands of fungus migrated to mainland China, and from there began its March across the globe, freely crossing borders and even oceans.

For some time it was believed that the TR4 strain (Tropical race 4) is the misfortune of the Eastern hemisphere, since the plantations are in South and Central America for decades did not know of this trouble. And now, the fungus began to kill plants in Colombia, Bolivia, Peru and Panama. Scientists from Wageningen University in the Netherlands, the study of banana disease, fear that the disease will go to Ecuador and it would be a disaster for the global banana industry.

This small South American country supplies the world market, the main volume of banana production. Professor Gert Who believes that the fungus in South America is a huge potential and if people do not learn to deal with it, the long "a banana crisis" is inevitable.

And the fight against TR4 is a complicated, expensive and lengthy process. Spores are found in soil and they are very resistant to chemical and biological agents. Tillage still gives results, but after this plantation for a long time, suitable for cultivation products.

Biologists believe that to achieve significant progress is possible, using quarantine measures, that is, protecting uninfected plantations from the fungus. To do this, many companies have introduced strict measures, restrict access to their land to outsiders, put up barricades to prevent the penetration of animals that can carry dangerous spores. Water for irrigation is trying to take from underground sources, where the probability of occurrence of the dispute TR4 strain is minimal.

But what if science can find in the near future simple and safe "medicine", and the quarantine will be ineffective? In this case, the bananas may disappear from our shelves for decades, or to move from the category of ordinary fruits of expensive premium segment.