Fungus that affects bananas could aggravate hunger crisis in Venezuela

A resistant fungus that dries up banana and plantain plantations and infects the soil could exacerbate the food crisis in Venezuelawhere some 6.5 million people already suffer from hunger, according to analysts, unions and non-governmental groups.

He Fusarium fungus Race 4 Tropical (R4T) It has been located in the states of Aragua, Carabobo and Cojedes, in the center of the country.

The National Institute for Integral Agricultural Health (INSAI) officially detected fusarium in January, but some growers and other experts say there has been evidence of the fungus in recent years and fear it could spread rapidly.

“I have affected 15% of my banana plantation” or bananas, said farmer Tomás Malavé, 46, who has 2,200 plants in his one-hectare banana-growing area in Aragua, in a telephone interview.

Malavé said he tried various remedies over the years, not knowing exactly what was affecting his plants. “Unfortunately, I have seen the disease for years, but it was only this year that the institutions determined the causative agent“, he claimed.

His neighbor Gregory Gamboa, 49, saw most of his banana plants wither several years ago and now grows other crops such as corn and black beans.

“We tried everything, but the cambur (banana) was lostGamboa said.

Venezuela is grappling with a long-running economic crisis and just under 23% of the population suffers from hunger, according to a United Nations report last year.

Annual inflation was a staggering 471% in April, according to the independent Venezuelan Finance Observatory.

Some families struggling to buy food rely on both bananas and plantains for energy; a kilo of any of these fruits generally costs between 1 and 2 dollars.

The monthly minimum wage is equivalent to only 5 dollars and many families depend on government food boxes or remittances from relatives abroad.

Energy and income

For small farmers, bananas and plantains are both a source of energy, carbohydrates and sugar, and a source of income, said Alexis Bonte, representative of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) In Venezuela.

“If people don’t have their banana, they don’t have their energy source and if they don’t have money to buy energy from another source, then it’s like a double punishment.Bonte said.

The fungus, which gradually dries up the plants and spreads through the infected soil, has so far affected some 150 hectares and some 1,000 small producers, he said.

The only way to eradicate fusarium is to uproot the plants and plant other crops such as maize or grains that are not susceptible to the fungus, says the FAO. Fusarium does not harm humans.

It is not clear how the fusarium, detected in the neighboring Colombia three years ago and Peru last year, it arrived in Venezuela, but it could have arrived via a contaminated plant, a truck, or even on footwear.

There are some 28,000 hectares planted with plantains and some 32,000 with bananas in Venezuela, said Saúl López, president of the Association of Agricultural Engineers, who warned in 2019 that the fungus was likely to arrive and urged the Government to apply sanitary controls.

The Government has prohibited the transport of seeds between the three states where fusarium has been detected, according to growers’ associations.

But growers said trucks and workers need to be washed and more checks are needed at the Colombian border.

Neither the Information Ministry nor the Agriculture Ministry responded to requests for comment.

The fungus has not yet been detected in Venezuela’s largest banana and plantain producing state, Zulia, which has about 10,000 hectares of crops, according to the Foundation for the Improvement of Plantains in Venezuela (Fumplaven).

“Here we are all afraid of the fungus because it destroys everything“, said sunday blackberrya 36-year-old producer in Zulia. “Having the fungus here would mean more hunger and more loss than we have.”