JAPAN has allowed the entry of a new type of local Cavendish bananas that are resistant to Fusarium wilt or Panama disease, the Bureau of Agriculture Research (BAR) said on Friday.
Dr. Agustin B. Molina, senior scientist of the Bioversity International-Asia and the Pacific Office, said innovations had to be rolled out to make Fusarium wilt-resistant bananas acceptable to the Japanese market.
“With optimization of harvesting time and ripening protocol, innovative four- to five-finger cluster packaging and improved branding, the new banana variety has gained acceptance in Japan,” Molina said in a statement issued by the BAR.
Known to breeders as GCTCV-219 (for Giant Cavendish Tissue-Culture Variant), the new variety is resistant to Fusarium wilt Tropical Race 4. Molina said the variety could be a potential alternative for the commercial Cavendish variety, which is susceptible to the destructive banana disease.
But for the new variety to be accepted in the Japanese market, some innovations had to be made. According to Molina, the Japanese market requires full-hand packaging for which bananas must have compact and uniformly curved fingers—the characteristics of the commercial Cavendish variety.
However, initial observations showed that the GCTCV-219 variety has less uniform hand formation and its fingers are more spread than the commercial Grand Naine Cavendish variety. Hence, a small-cluster packaging for GCTCV-219, containing only about four to five fingers per cluster was initiated as a market strategy, giving the new variety a good packaging presentation.
In addition, it received “sweeter” branding as compared to other varieties, allowing it an initial niche share in the Japanese market. GCTCV-219 is now sold as premium Cavendish banana under the Miyabi brand and tagged as “elegant taste banana” or “sweet banana.”
The shipment was undertaken by the Philippine Fresh Fruits Corp. owned by Lucianao Puyod, one of the farmer-cooperators of the Bioversity International-led projects supported by the BAR, an attached agency of the Department of Agriculture (DA).
In 2012 Bioversity International and the BAR embarked on two banana projects to provide Cavendish growers an immediate solution to Fusarium wilt that threatened to wipe out banana plantations. GCTCV-219 was introduced to 20 farmer-cooperators in Davao City, Davao del Norte, Davao del Sur and Compostela Valley, whose farms were totally destroyed by the disease. The growers were given more than 30,000 seedlings for piloting in their farms and many of them have already harvested their crops.
Results of the field trials showed that GCTCV-219 is significantly more resistant to Fusarium wilt than Grand Naine, which was totally destroyed by the disease as early as during the primary cropping in most farms. On the other hand, an average of only 1-percent infection was recorded for GCTCV-219 even after the ratoon or second crop.
The Mauro and Sons Farm in Calinan, Davao, successfully produced GCTCV-219, the fruits of which are now sold in Japan as sweet banana through a multinational company. Other growers sell their fruits to other markets such as China.
The GCTCV-219 breed is an enhanced selection of another Fusarium wilt-resistant variety, GCTCV-119, developed and shared by the Taiwan Banana Research Institute. In 2002 the National Repository Multiplication Development Center (NRMDC) was established in University of Philippines Los Baños, Laguna, through Bioversity International and the BAR. NRMDC served as a repository for improved banana varieties from different countries that are collaborating with Bioversity International-coordinated Banana Asia Pacific Network, of which the Philippines is a member.
One of the varieties introduced at the NRMDC was the Fusarium wilt-resistant GCTCV-119. Through recurrent selection done in Davao, a more improved genotype was developed and eventually called GCTCV-219.
Initial evaluation of the varieties was conducted in partnership with the Philippine Council for Agriculture, Aquatic and Natural Resources Research and Development and Lapanday Fruits Corp., a Davao-based commercial banana plantation.
“For now, the variety gives high hopes for the mitigation of this devastating disease threatening the multibillion-peso banana export, an important source of foreign revenue and providing direct livelihood to more than 320,000 people in Mindanao.
More than 3,000 hectares have already been reported to be totally devastated by the disease,” Molina said.
While he does not recommend GCTCV-219 as an immediate replacement to the current commercial varieties that are not yet affected by the disease and are still economically grown, Molina said the GCTCV-219 variety is a very good option in case the disease goes out of hand and totally destroys a plantation.
Molina added that as the pathogen stays in the soil for many years, a susceptible variety can no longer become productive, leaving banana growers resorting to less-income crops like corn.
Meanwhile, the DA’s regional office in Davao said it is spending P39 million to put up a tissue-culture laboratory that would reproduce the Fusarium wilt-resistant Cavendish banana.
DA Regional Director Remelyn R. Recoter said farmers, whose farms were devastated by the Panama disease and typhoon Pablo in December 2012, are increasingly requesting for the variety.
(With a report from Manuel T. Cayon)
Image credits: BAR Photo