Overview
Fusarium wilt has challenged banana growers since an incursion of the soil-borne fungal disease in Panama in 1890. By the 1990s a new strain of the disease was discovered in Cavendish bananas and has since spread rapidly through Southeast Asia, decimating banana industries and livelihoods.
ACIAR has supported research into the disease, first to identify and understand the spread of the disease, and then to determine management practices to reduce on-farm impact for smallholder growers, while aiming to minimise spread of the disease to neighbouring regions and countries.
Drawing on knowledge and experience gained from a suite of projects supported by ACIAR in Indonesia and the Philippines, but in particular the project ‘An integrated management response to the spread of Fusarium wilt of banana in Southeast Asia’ (HORT/2018/192), this manual presents a decision-making process to guide growers to implement disease management practices to prevent the disease from entering the farm, or in the event of an incursion, reduce the spread of the disease and minimise plant losses. The manual also introduces the Fusarium Wilt Integrated Risk Tool.
