UN warns that banana yellow leaf disease is spreading beyond Asia

The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) issued a warning on the 14th of April stating that the disease Fusarium Wilt (also known as the Panama disease) has now spread from Asia to Africa and the Middle East. FAO confirms that Southeast Asia has tens of thousands of hectares already infected and has spread already to Jordan and Mozambique.

Banana is one of the major crops of least developed countries and is important source of income for poor farmers. The FAO continues the "banana production and exports are under serious threat."

Only the banana trees are infected by the disease. The banana fruit itself is not infected. The solution is to cut the tree down, dig a trench around the tree to prevent the disease from spreading.

Other major banana producing countries like Ecuador and Latin America have not yet been infected by the disease. However FAO warns that banana trees in Latin America may become infected as well.

The disease can possibly wipeout an estimated 47 percent of the global production of bananas, with estimated damages around 5 billion USD (about 31.1 billion yuan).