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Jamaica Bans Sale of Citrus Plants to Control Pest

05.07.11

Jamaica has shuttered all citrus nurseries across the tropical sticks to try and check an invasive pest that carries a fast-spreading bacteria competent of devastating its $43 million commercial industry, officials said Tuesday.

Jamaica's department of agriculture announced that all nurseries were closed until further notice and the sale of plants were prohibited to suppress the spread of the incurable "citrus greening" disease, which has hobbled citrus movie in parts of China and infested millions of dead and dying trees in Florida and Brazil.

"If the murrain is not managed, it can have very severe repercussions," said Alfred Barrett, program proprietor of the Jamaica Citrus Protection Agency. "So we're hoping that by closing the nurseries within the vector we can get it under sway."

But with nearly 5,300 citrus farmers, nearly 5,000 of whom tend to plots of 10 acres (4 hectares) or less, stopping the spread of the blighting plague in mountainous Jamaica will be difficult. There are only eight large farmers with citrus groves of over 250 acres (101 hectares), according to Barrett.

Source: ABC News

Researchers: Bananas too inbred to fight disease

05.07.11

, Traced primitive banana cultivation to the Kuk swamp of New Guinea around 5,000 BC. The plants spread throughout southeast Asia and into Africa, almost certainly via benignant intervention.

Bananas are a crucial source of food for tropical and sub-tropical nations, especially Africa, ranking after rice, wheat and corn in influence. More than 85% of bananas are grown for local consumption. Most are not the sweet dessert varieties eaten in the west, but starchy plantain-fad bananas that must first be cooked.

The banana probably arose in the islands around Southeast Asia and western Melanesia. It was hybridized into subspecies that could not have been created without benevolent intervention - the only way to grow more of these bananas is to take a shoot from a banana plant, as the seeds are predominantly not viable.

This means that most banana plants are clones, with no genetic variety. A good criterion is today's Cavendish , the main banana sold in the United States and Europe. All arrive from clones of the same tree and all are genetically identical.

Source: USA Today