COVID-19 of PLANT WORLD

  

The time when a deadly virus called Covid-19 is dancing on the life of human beings like a democle's sword, a new equivalent problem has started which is striking our food chain. Covid-19 in bananas, scientifically known as "fusarium wiltTR4 (Tropical Race 4)", a novel fungus strain also know as Panama disease that has devastated plantations across the globe this year. 

This fungus enters throw the roots of the banana and block the flow of water and nutrients which change the color of the leaves from green to yellow. Fusarium wilt is difficult to control because its spores can remain in the soil for decades and in present, there is no magic bullet that can cure it. There are many varieties of banana but TR4 has affected the most commonly sold variety known as Grand nain. 

This strain was firstly identified in Taiwan in 1989 and has spread from Asia to the Middle East and Africa. Banana is the world's most globally exported fruit, so it can easily cross the borders of the countries. In 2015, Australia detected TR4 in Queensland, the farm is Quarantined and some plants were destroyed to make a hard grip on the problem. Last year, Columbia declared national emergency after they detected the panama disease.

India produces about 27 million tonnes of bananas annually of about 100 varieties. The diseased variety is a rife in Central India. Bihar and Uttar Pradesh are now hotspots and are trying to deal with this. 

Although TR4 is one of the most destructive plant disease but the solace is that it is not harmful to humans.