Peru strengthens controls to prevent the spread of Fusarium race 4 in areas near Ecuador

The plague was detected last April in Piura, and in 2019 in the La Guajira sector, in Colombia.

Eight months after the detection ofFusariumbreed 4 in Peruvian territory, in April 2020, in Piura, an area near the border with Ecuador, the Government of that country has reinforced its prevention actions to prevent the plague from spreading.

The concern extends to Ecuador, particularly in the province of El Oro, the province with the largest banana production, where there is concern about the possible entry of this disease caused by a fungus that lives in the soil and forms resistance structures that allow it to survive. more than 30 years, which makes its management and control difficult.

Meanwhile, in Peru, an intense information campaign through television, radio, social networks and the production of brochures and posters are part of the strategies that have been implemented as a preventive measure to protect plantain and banana crops that are produced in Huánuco and other regions of the neighboring country, as reported by the Ministry of Agrarian Development and Irrigation of Peru (Midagri).

According to information from the National Agrarian Health Service (Senasa) of Peru, the reinforcement of these actions was proposed last October during a meeting of the Regional Agrarian Management Committee, where the members agreed to generate a proposal to complement the actions led by Senasa, whose purpose is the containment ofFusariumR4T.

Meanwhile, Midagri added that to date 1,765 hectares have been prospected in the provinces of Huánuco, Leoncio Prado, Marañón, Huamalíes and Puerto Inca; Likewise, 667 banana producers, technicians, merchants and professionals linked to the cultivation of plantain and banana have been trained and trained. In addition, 82 banana samples with suspicious symptoms have been sent.

The Huánuco region has 18,186 hectares of bananas and plantains, of which the province of Leoncio Prado has more than 14,400 hectares of bananas, which represents one of the main economic activities of family farming in the area.