FAO supporting The Comoros in the emergency response to banana Fusarium wilt disease

Bananas are one of the most widely consumed local products in the Comoros. During the FAO workshop Strengthening Plant Health Emergency Management in Southern Africa, the representative of Comoros declared that the first case of banana Fusarium wilt (TR4) on Grande Comore island was confirmed. The reported findings were made possible after a regional training workshop on banana Fusarium wilt TR4 that FAO and Stellenbosch University jointly organized. Following the declaration of the first report of banana Fusarium wilt TR4, FAO received a technical support request from the national government to support the development of an action plan to manage the disease in the Comoros. With the support of the United States Agency for International Development’s Bureau of Humanitarian Assistance (USAID-BHA), and under the second phase of the global project on Strengthening Plant Health Emergency Management Capacities (OSRO/GLO/1137/USA), FAO deployed a team of four experts to conduct an assessment mission to Comoros and to provide urgent and needed training on surveillance of this disease and collect the needed information for developing the action plan.

The mission received a high level of attention from the national authorities who expressed great concern about the impact of this disease on food security and livelihoods of thousands of smallholders in the Comoros. The team visited different infested fields on Grande Comore island's north and south. During the mission, the team delivered a training session on emergency management and surveillance practices of the disease, including applying biosecurity measures by the inspectors, collecting samples from infected plants, digital submission of sample data, and processing the collected samples on the Loop-mediated isothermal amplification (LAMP) machine at the Institut National de Recherche pour l’Agriculture, la Pêche et l’Environnement (INRAPE).

The FAO team also met with one of the farmers’ associations in the south of the Grande Comore island where they had the opportunity to conduct an awareness-raising session for the smallholder farmers on Fusarium wilt TR4 and the threat of movement of the contaminated planting materials between farms on the same island or between islands.