An historical treatise and critical review of black Sigatoka control in banana production

Abstract:

Bananas are among the most important crops worldwide (Ploetz 2000; Ploetz et al. 2015). The 2012–2013 banana market review from the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), stated that the global production of bananas was around 106.7 millions of tons. Global export reached 16.5 million tons with a gross production value of US $29.7 billion (FAO 2014a, b). Nonetheless, global export of banana represents only 15.5% of the total banana production. The remaining 84.5% represents banana production for local consumption. This stresses the importance of the banana fruit as a staple food in many tropical and subtropical developing countries. It is believed that banana is a starchy staple food for approximately 500 million people (Collins 2014). Many banana varieties for local consumption are relative cheap and easy to produce. Sadly, many of these varieties are susceptible to black Sigatoka disease, an important leaf defoliation disease that is caused by the dothideomycete fungus Pseudocercospora fijiensis (previously Mycosphaerella fijiensis)(Arango et al. 2016). The disease causes substantial direct and indirect losses due to defoliation and consequently reduced yields as well as due to premature ripening of the fruit, turning them into an unfit commodity for the export, respectively (Ploetz 2000). The main control measure involves frequent fungicide applications with a very high environmental and economic burden (Chong et al. 2016b; Chong et al. 2016c; Risède et al. 2010). As such, black Sigatoka has a major effect on subsistence production of banana and plantain since most of the smallholders are unable to …

Año de publicación:

2016

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Fuente:

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