New e-course to protect bananas from fusarium wilt disease

The Alliance of Bioversity International and CIAT, in collaboration with BlueGreen Labs, has launched a new e-course on Fusarium wilt of banana on the banana plant health learning platform www.crophealth.org. Here, courses are developed within the CGIAR ‘Plant Health’ initiative, providing accessible and practical knowledge for effective banana disease management.

The e-course on Fusarium wilt of banana addresses the practical implementation of Fusarium disease management across various banana production systems, ranging from large-scale plantations to smallholder subsistence farms. Course topics include:

Module 1: What is Fusarium wilt?
Background information on disease epidemiology to help understand how and why disease management practices work
Module 2: Risk management
Risk management including prevention, eradication and containment, both with and without support from the NPPO (national plant protection organization)
Module 3: Control using resistant cultivars
The adoption of disease-resistant varieties, including a case study on Formosana (Giant Cavendish somaclone) in the Philippines
Module 4: Farm management
Practical farm management towards soil health and pathogen suppression