• Submitted by: manso
• Business and Economy
• 03 / 21 / 2011

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16/03/2011 - The Cabaré project, which was launched recently, has as its objective the dissemination in the Caribbean of new banana varieties free of any phytosanitary risks. CIRAD is coordinating the project, funded by the Interreg IV Caribbean programme, in partnership with three research organizations in Cuba and another in the Dominican Republic.

Banana and plantain play a key role in food security and the socioeconomic balance of the whole of the Caribbean. The emergence of new diseases , primarily black Sigatoka, or black leaf streak, caused by a fungus, is threatening the long-term cultivation of these crops. The export market centres on a single variety (Cavendish), which is highly susceptible to black Sigatoka, which is currently controlled by regular, frequent, hence costly and polluting, aerial fungicide treatments.

Just two countries in the Lesser Antilles, Dominica and Guadeloupe , are still free of black Sigatoka. However, the disease has been spreading through the region for the past fifteen years or so, and is now a direct threat to those countries. To control it effectively in the long term, it is necessary to develop cropping systems based on the use of resistant hybrid varieties.

In effect, some countries already affected by the disease, notably Cuba and the Dominican Republic, have in the past decade disseminated black Sigatoka-resistant hybrid varieties on a large scale, so as to control it without resorting to fungicide treatments. However, the efficacy of that resistance in these hybrid varieties has lessened in recent years, and fungicide treatments are thus sometimes still required. It is thus necessary to understand why these varieties have become less resistant, in order to come up with solutions that guarantee long-term resistance. Moreover, these hybrid varieties have within their genome endogenous banana streak virus (eBSV) sequences, some of which are infectious and may be expressed following stress. The risk of spreading the virus through large-scale dissemination of hybrid varieties needs to be assessed, so as to come up with crop management sequences capable of managing it, if necessary.

In tackling these two questions, the Cabaré * project aims to propose and promote new banana cropping systems using hybrid varieties resistant to black Sigatoka , to ensure that the disease is controlled in a sustainable, environmentally friendly way . The project centres on a strong partnership with Cuba and the Dominican Republic , two of the Caribbean's leading banana producers.

The Cabaré project launch workshop was held from 1 to 3 March 2011 in the Dominican Republic. Some fifty people attended (representatives of institutions, regional bodies and French consular services in the Caribbean, project partners and experts from CIRAD). The event and the project mark CIRAD's return to the Dominican Republic. The results of the Cabaré project are eagerly awaited throughout the Caribbean.

- Caribbean Network for the Prevention and Sustainable Control of Emerging Banana Diseases
Dominican Republic: 960 000 t/year – Cuba: 870 000 t/year (source: FruiTrop 2008, FAO database)

Source: www.cirad.fr/en/news/all-news-items/articles/2011/science/cabare