A global conference that will bring together the world's leading experts on protecting bananas from pests and diseases will take place in South Africa from 10 to 14 September 2007.
The conference
Commercial growers around the globe have suffered devastating losses in their plantations due to diseases such as fusarium wilt and black leaf streak, and pests such as nematodes. Many are now on a "pesticide treadmill", faced with crippling bills for pesticides, which are becoming less and less effective in protecting the crop, while increasingly attracting the disapproval of environmentalists and public health workers alike.
For small-scale farmers in the developing world, who depend on bananas and plantains for their livelihoods, the effect of the ever-increasing pressure of pests and disease can be even more severe, threatening their basic food security.
Plant breeders have so far generally failed to deliver on their initial promise of creating resistant varieties that are widely acceptable to producers and consumers. Novel approaches to address the threat of newly emerging and well-established pests and diseases, based on managing the diversity available within the crop and the diversity of associated species within the cropping system, are now being seriously considered. These will be at the forefront of the conference.
"We no longer expect simple solutions from a single discipline," said Richard Markham, a director at Bioversity International and on the conference programme as a keynote speaker. "After more than 20 years of research we now realize that we have to combine the best varieties that breeders can offer us with intelligent management, based on agro-ecological principles, but it's still not easy to put these basic principles of integration into practice. This conference will help."
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August 08, 2007
Banana pest control conference to be held in South Africa in September
Categories banana, disease, plantain, South Africa
