Climate change and emerging plant diseases and pests are making feeding the growing human population increasingly challenging. A key element in meeting this challenge is to use the genetic diversity of wild relatives of agricultural crops, as is the case with our edible banana. Within this diversity of wild bananas, there may be traits present that may offer protection against drought, cold or pests and diseases. For example, our Cavendish eating bananas and many other cultivated varieties are currently under very severe pressure from emerging diseases such as Fusarium fungus and Banana Bunchy Top Virus (BBTV).
The international group of scientists arrived in northern Australia this week to embark on an expedition in the rainforest aimed at collecting the ancestor of the edible banana and looking for wild bananas that can hopefully help solve these problems. For this expedition, our scientists from Meise Botanic Garden are working closely with colleagues from Australia at the University of Queensland and a scientist from the International Musa Germplasm Transit Centre (ITC). ITC is part of CGIAR (Consultative Group for International Agricultural Research). This is a global partnership that brings together international organisations involved in food security research.
