Thread: Possible Outbreak of “Panama Disease” Reported at Chiang Rai Banana Plantation

CHIANG RAI – Officials from the Department of Agriculture have been dispatched to a Banana plantation in Chiang Rai province after a report of an alleged outbreak of Panama disease.


The 2000 Rai plantation is operated by a Chinese company and is located in the Phaya Mengrai district of Chiang Rai Province.


Officials from the Department of Agriculture told Thai media that they cannot yet confirm whether it is Panama disease, and that the disease has never occurred in Thailand before.


The official said that that the Chinese company allegedly imported cuttings illegally to be planted in Chiang Rai,” adding that the alleged disease is presently limited to this one plantation in Chiang Rai.

She said Bio Chemists have taken samples from the infected banana plants for testing and the analysis will be completed within a week and that officials are destroying the infected banana trees in a bid to contain the disease.


Witoon Lianchamroon, head of Biothai, a conservation group on sustainable agriculture warned that one of the first recorded outbreaks of Panama disease in the 1950s nearly wiped out the Gros Michel variety of banana.


Witoon said that the disease is very severe and cannot be treated because a chemical does not exist, the only way to stop it is to change the species.

Panama disease, or Fusarium wilt, is a devastating disease of banana and caused havoc in banana plantations in Central America where it killed hundreds of thousands of hectares of the “Gros Michel” banana.



The disease evolved in one of the worst botanical epidemics of all time in Central America.
This is not the first time the Phaya Mengrai district banana plantation came under controversy in 2016 a conflict arose with local residents over environmental concerns. The Chinese firm pumped water out of the Ing River to its 2,750 rai (440 hectares) of banana plantations at the expense of downstream farmlands.


Locals lodged a complaint with the National Human Rights Commission alleging that the plantation — a joint investment between Thai and Chinese company was illegally discharging chemicals into public waterways.


By Geoff Thomas

Possible Outbreak of ?Panama Disease? Reported at Chiang Rai Banana Plantation ? CTN News ? Chiang Rai Times

Thought there was an obscure infection at a CR agogo there at first.

Depends on the plant but

The Banana Apocalypse


Interestingly, the Cavendish banana was not the world’s most popular banana until the 1960s. In fact, it was relatively unknown among the masses and even after the 1960s the former world’s most popular banana, the Gros Michel or “Big Mike”, was generally preferred by businesses and consumers alike. The Gros Michel was preferred by businesses due to being easier to ship and they stored longer before spoiling than the Cavendish. Consumers also liked them better for the increase in storage time as well as the fact that they are larger and sweeter and generally considered to taste better. The latter being one of the reasons it was the world’s most popular banana in the first place. Unfortunately, the world was forced to switch bananas in the middle of the 20th century.


So what happened to force this switch? What happened was a banana apocalypse on a global scale. You see, the drawback of the fact that within each variety of banana nearly all the bananas are clones of one another is what will kill or harm one banana plant will do the same to all other banana plants of the same variety. Enter the Panama disease which caused the near extinction of the Gros Michel Banana. Panama disease is a type of fungus that lives in the soil and to which fungicides do not work against, which is why it is such a threat. There are a variety of strains of this fungus out there, one of which wiped out the Gros Michel Banana as a commercial product.


It was around the 1920s when this particular strain of the Panama disease first showed up in Sirname. From there, it spread quickly through the Caribbean and eventually throughout the banana growing world. By the 1960s, due to the mass wipe-out of the Gros Michel, banana growers were pretty much all nearly bankrupt and were desperately trying to find a way to stay afloat. Enter the Cavendish banana, which is smaller, but somewhat similar tasting to the Gros Michel, only less sweet and more care needed in its shipping and storage. But just as important as the similar taste was that it was resistant to the particular strain of the Panama disease that wiped out the Gros Michel. A few billion dollars in infrastructure change later and growers successfully made the switch, with the mass public accepting the new banana in place of the Gros Michel.


Unfortunately, a new strain of the Panama disease, that the Cavendish banana is not resistant to, sprung up in 1992 and threatens the world’s most popular banana once again. This time however, there has not yet been found a similar substitute banana among the other 1000 or so varieties out there. Most varieties of banana contain giant hard seeds throughout the soft fleshy inside and generally taste nothing like the bananas we are used to eating. A second banana apocalypse, if it happens soon before a new variety can either be genetically engineered or carefully bred, will likely see the end of the fruit as a popular commercial product.


Since this new strain of Panama disease has showed up, it has already wiped out plantations in Indonesia, Malaysia, Australia, and Taiwan and is currently spreading through Southeast Asia. It is also thought that it is only a matter of time before it spreads through Africa and Latin America, which would be the death knell for the Cavendish as a commercial product.

Originally Posted by misskit

The 2000 Rai plantation is operated by a Chinese company and is located in the Phaya Mengrai district of Chiang Rai Province.

They probably have a lot of useless vegetation they need to burn off in dry season.

Perhaps they will be reaping what they've sown.

Maybe CP will be next...

Is this what is to become to cross-bred super hybrids and GMOed varieties? Susceptible to these nasty and unforgiving strains?

What of the native variety, in which the few grown are dwindling?
Notice where these fungi develop and the type from where they originate.

Panama stays in the soil for many years.
The outbreak is a big problem for Thailand if not managed properly.
Thai attitudes to biosecurity are interesting.
The Australian Thai lady mafia farcebook pages sometimes boast of all the things they’ve smuggled in - complete with pictures of packed suitcases.
Raw meats, seedlings with soil, and oozing cuttings that possibly contain bugs. And seeds. Lots of seeds. Viruses ? Bacteria ? Pathogens aplenty.
And why wouldn’t they smuggle them in ? The fines are laughable. Being struck by wet tissues would be more traumatic.