Save wild banana crop
A team of phytologists found a wild banana in Madagascar that may hold the way to protecting the world’s consumable crop has put on the disappearance list.
Researchers say the plant should monitor, as it might hold the key to guarding bananas for the future. While, people across the world mostly consumed cavendish bananas, a type of banana which is vulnerable to a plant pest. Every banana now eaten is directly descended from this plant
The Madagascan banana has advanced in detachment on an island cut off from the mainland and may have extraordinary properties.
Banana seasonal disease
Richard Allen, senior protection assessor at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, said the species, Ensete perrieri, could have in-buit resilience to drought or disease. It doesn’t have Panama disease. So, maybe it has genetic traits against the disease.
If the wild banana can ensure, there will be chances to collect the seeds and look at the plant’s genetic make-up.
According to the latest science news, the Madagascan banana produce seeds within the fruit, which means it is not palatable to eat. But cross-breeding could lead to a new type of banana that would be both edible and resilient.
The banana grows on the edge of forests, where it is vulnerable to damage from severe weather events as well as from logging, fires and the clearing of forests for farming.
While, the disease affecting the Cavendish currently confined to Asia, but if it spread to the Americas, it could wipe out the world’s banana crop.
