A frenetic activity breaks out in the banana plantation and the farm manager makes an emergency call to the national plant protection organization to notify them that some of their trees show signs of the presence of tropical Fusarium 4 (RT4), a fungus highly destructive.

Quickly, the organization sends personnel to the farm. Upon arrival, put on the personal protection equipment, disinfect your shoes and tools, and follow all the necessary biosafety protocols to begin examining potentially affected trees. Further, they define a quarantine zone and order the exploitation personnel who do not enter this zone, because the propagation of the pathogen would mean the safe ruin of the plantation.

Fortunately, for now this grim scenario is purely hypothetical and forms part of a simulation that has been carried out in several countries, including, in the latter case, Kenya. However, Moses Njorah Kibuthu, a worker at the Bendor banana farm, located 50 kilometers from Nairobi, the country's capital, considers this activity to be enormously useful.

“Now we know what we need to do and what preventive measures we need to take to protect our plantations and our livelihoods”, he states.

Participants in the simulation learned to prevent and contain incipient threats, such as Fusarium's R4T, and worked on developing a contingency plan in case the situation actually occurred.

The host of the simulated propagation of Fusarium R4T was the Kenyan Phytosanitary Inspection Service, the national organization for the country's phytosanitary protection. The activity was organized by the Secretariat of the International Convention for Phytosanitary Protection (CIPF) of the United Nations Organization for Food and Agriculture (FAO), which coordinates global initiatives against R4T.

Designed by the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA), the trade facilitation project was financed by the European Commission and included participants from countries close to COMESA.

Specialized knowledge from the other side of the ocean

In the ongoing struggle against agricultural plagues, propagation simulations have become a fundamental component of global plant protection strategies. These activities can be used as preparation against all risks arising from the spread of incipient plagues.

The significance of this particular simulation was that it was the first one carried out in Africa, in collaboration with experts from the FAO of Latin America and the Caribbean, a region that has years of experience in the fight against this pathogen.

“If we want to prevent R4T from gaining strength in other regions, such as Africa, and destroying the livelihoods of a large number of people, it is vitally important to transfer the knowledge we have acquired in Latin America”, says Raixa Llauger, Agricultural Officer of the FAO in the region of Latin America and the Caribbean.

During the field simulation, FAO technical experts showed how to take samples of infected plants and destroy them to contain the spread of the pathogen in a plantation.

The simulation was also carried out in the laboratory of the Estación de Cuarentena Vegetal y Bioseguridad de Muguga, in the district of Kiambu, where participants were trained on how to receive a priority sample, maintain biosecurity measures and communicate the results of the analysis to exploitation and other relevant actors. Local officials were also invited to ensure that the community understood that the simulation was a capacity building activity and not a real thing.

During the preparation of the general simulation, the organizers also visited Nairobi's Jomo Kenyatta International Airport to first understand one of the risk routes through which infected plants or plant products could enter Kenya.

Some huge implications

It's very much what's in play. Bananas and plane trees are grown in 135 countries around the world, and more than 400 million people depend on bananas for their food security. Furthermore, its trade generates 10,000 million USD every year.

So far, only three African countries have reported cases of this fungus. But Fusarium R4T is especially harmful due to its persistence in soil and its ability to spread through contaminated equipment, water or plant material. Currently, once it is in the ground, there is no way to eliminate it, which is why to stop its spread it is essential to have prevention, preparation and timely response measures.

The pathogen was identified for the first time in Latin America in 2019, but even before that, simulations were carried out, which are still being carried out in Bolivia, Belize, Colombia, Costa Rica, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama and the Dominican Republic.

This strategy has allowed countries to strengthen the preventive approach and biosecurity throughout the banana production, transportation and international trade chain, with a fundamental review of their phytosanitary surveillance systems, explains Llauger.

Colombia is an outstanding example of success in the fight against Fusarium's R4T. It has managed to halt the advance of the disease and, despite the presence of the fungus, has increased the production and export of bananas since 2019 until the end of 2023.

The importance of this type of preparation is evident to improve food security and protect the livelihoods of countless families in banana and plane tree producing countries. These initiatives can play a vital role on the ground in the face of the R4T of Fusarium, as well as in the face of many other diseases and plagues, which are increasing due to climate change.