{"id":17094,"date":"2026-06-20T12:55:05","date_gmt":"2026-06-20T12:55:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dev.iita.org\/news-item\/iita-scientists-cited-for-their-work-on-battling-pests-and-diseases-to-save-the-banana\/"},"modified":"2026-06-29T18:13:24","modified_gmt":"2026-06-29T18:13:24","slug":"iita-scientists-cited-for-their-work-on-battling-pests-and-diseases-to-save-the-banana","status":"publish","type":"news-item","link":"https:\/\/iita.org\/fr\/news-item\/iita-scientists-cited-for-their-work-on-battling-pests-and-diseases-to-save-the-banana\/","title":{"rendered":"Des scientifiques de l'IITA cit\u00e9s pour leurs travaux sur la lutte contre les ravageurs et les maladies pour sauver la banane"},"content":{"rendered":"Two IITA scientists have been cited for their work in helping to eradicate the\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.promusa.org\/Tropical+race+4+-+TR4\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">tropical race 4 disease<\/a>\u00a0(TR4) that threatens to destroy the Cavendish banana and the multibillion dollar industry associated with it.\n<div id=\"attachment_1647\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\">\n\n<a href=\"https:\/\/iita.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/Banana_011216_1.jpg\"><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1647\" src=\"https:\/\/iita.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/Banana_011216_1.jpg\" alt=\"Picture of a wild banana used in the IITA banana breeding program\" width=\"438\" height=\"291\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-1647\" \/><\/a>\n<p id=\"caption-attachment-1647\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">A wild banana used in the IITA banana breeding program.<\/p>\n\n<\/div>\nIn an article entitled Can the Banana be Saved published by the NOVANEXT journal on 3 November, IITA scientists\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/iita.org\/fr\/swennen-rony\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Rony Swennen<\/a>\u00a0et\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/iita.org\/fr\/brown-allan\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Allan Brown<\/a>\u00a0commented on how their research is helping to combat many key diseases and pests by using wild bananas.\n\nAn excerpt from the article reads: Some banana breeders are holding out hope that TR4 may cause plantation owners to rethink the global Cavendish monoculture. \u201cRace 4 is a threat, but it\u2019s also an opportunity to start growing more diversity,\u201d says Rony Swennen, the lead banana and plantain breeder for the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA) based in Arusha, Tanzania. \u201cWe need much more wild bananas, from everywhere in Asia\u2014especially from places like Indonesia and Papua New Guinea, where good tasting bananas first originated,\u201d Swennen says.\n\nThere are certainly opportunities to grow better tasting bananas. \u201cCavendish is the Red Delicious of bananas\u2014it stores forever but has a horrible taste,\u201d says Allan Brown, a fruit breeder also at IITA.\n\nTR4 isn\u2019t the only disease threat. Today\u2019s banana will need bolstering with resistance against other key diseases too, such as against the black sigatoka fungus, the bunchy top virus (BBTV), bacterial wilt as well as important pests such as nematodes and weevils. There are currently no sources of resistance against the BBTV and bacterial wilt, but it may be lurking in wild bananas yet to be collected. Limited sources of resistance have been identified against the other threats. A big challenge is to combine the resistance to provide \u201call-round\u201d protection, a challenge Swennen and Brown are taking very seriously with the cooking bananas that they are working on in East Africa. Their efforts are supported by IITA colleagues screening banana germplasm against those pests and diseases. \u201cWe want to breed for long-term resistance, to win the never-ending battle against diseases for at least a longer time,\u201d Swennen says.\n\nRead full article\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.pbs.org\/wgbh\/nova\/next\/nature\/rewilding-the-banana\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">ici<\/a>.","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Two IITA scientists have been cited for their work in helping to eradicate the tropical race 4 disease (TR4) that threatens to destroy the Cavendish banana and the multibillion dollar industry associated with it.<\/p>","protected":false},"featured_media":17095,"template":"","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}}},"tags":[],"science-area":[],"program":[],"location":[32],"news-type":[],"hub":[61],"crop":[],"impact-areas":[],"item-year":[194],"class_list":["post-17094","news-item","type-news-item","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","location-nigeria","hub-western-africa","item-year-194"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v28.2 - 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