PGR News from the Pacific

Posted 2:12 PM by Tevita

Chilling temperature destroys Southern China's bananas

From : Risbap Bulletin

As farmers and experts alike battle diseases that affect banana plantations across China, an unlikely enemy struck from nowhere: a ferocious weather condition that saw an unprecedented chilling rain and temperature destroying banana plantations in Southern China. It was a particularly serious blow to the Chinese banana industry, which just few years ago, was reported in the Asia Pulse News as one that would give the Philippines – ranked second in the world in terms of exports – a ran for its money. High hopes were directed to Chinese-grown banana to supply the local market and probably the export market. However, when the cold temperature started to descend upon southern China in early January this year, it brought home the message, that challenges for the industry go beyond pests and diseases. Or perhaps, this is already a warning about the destructive effects of climate change to agriculture?
The Chinese Guangdong Academy of Agricultural Sciences (GDAAS) estimated the damage in the three provinces as that to have covered 70% of the production areas across the stretches of banana plantations in the provinces of Guangdong, Guangxi, and Fujian. This is huge considering that about 75% of the total 280,000-hectare banana
production in China is in these provinces. With bananas normally growing best in warm conditions, banana plantations were dealt with a huge blow with the temperature, which GDAAS reported to have reached as low as 0.5 degrees Celsius, at some places, averaging at 12 degrees from early January to mid-February, this year.
The Chinese government tried to cushion the ill-effects of the low-temperature by establishing rescue groups, providing food supply to affected farmers as well as visiting plantations to help and instruct farmers on how to start planting again. To minimize the effects of the cold weather on newly-planted tissue cultured banana
plants, farmers covered their plot with plastic films. These plastic films, GDAAS says, help minimize the low temperature damage and to allow them to harvest at
high-price market months. In some areas, affected plants were cut down to allow new
suckers to develop. The farmers also harvest on-time, and encourage the emergence of new suckers by cutting off unwanted suckers. Proper fertilization was also mentioned
as one that helped tide the plantations over the month-long lowtemperature.
Dr. Agustin Molina, regional coordinator for Bioversity International Commodities for Livelihood- Asia-Pacific , met with Dr. Yi Ganjun, director of GDAAS' Institute of Fruit Tree Research, during the early part of the year, and saw first hand some of the devastations in Guangdong and Guangxi provinces, including the mitigating measures that farmers undertook to rehabilitate the damaged banana crops. GDAAS mentioned that it was in 1999 when a similar weather condition struck China. (With reports from Dr. Yi Ganjun and Dr. Li Chunyu, GDAAS, China



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DIVA-GIS	Wednesday, May 07, 2008 Posted 2:12 PM by Tevita Chilling temperature destroys Southern China's bananas From : Risbap Bulletin As farmers and experts alike battle diseases that affect banana plantations across China, an unlikely enemy struck from nowhere: a ferocious weather condition that saw an unprecedented chilling rain and temperature destroying banana plantations in Southern China. It was a particularly serious blow to the Chinese banana industry, which just few years ago, was reported in the Asia Pulse News as one that would give the Philippines – ranked second in the world in terms of exports – a ran for its money. High hopes were directed to Chinese-grown banana to supply the local market and probably the export market. However, when the cold temperature started to descend upon southern China in early January this year, it brought home the message, that challenges for the industry go beyond pests and diseases. Or perhaps, this is already a warning about the destructive effects of climate change to agriculture? The Chinese Guangdong Academy of Agricultural Sciences (GDAAS) estimated the damage in the three provinces as that to have covered 70% of the production areas across the stretches of banana plantations in the provinces of Guangdong, Guangxi, and Fujian. This is huge considering that about 75% of the total 280,000-hectare banana production in China is in these provinces. With bananas normally growing best in warm conditions, banana plantations were dealt with a huge blow with the temperature, which GDAAS reported to have reached as low as 0.5 degrees Celsius, at some places, averaging at 12 degrees from early January to mid-February, this year. The Chinese government tried to cushion the ill-effects of the low-temperature by establishing rescue groups, providing food supply to affected farmers as well as visiting plantations to help and instruct farmers on how to start planting again. To minimize the effects of the cold weather on newly-planted tissue cultured banana plants, farmers covered their plot with plastic films. These plastic films, GDAAS says, help minimize the low temperature damage and to allow them to harvest at high-price market months. In some areas, affected plants were cut down to allow new suckers to develop. The farmers also harvest on-time, and encourage the emergence of new suckers by cutting off unwanted suckers. Proper fertilization was also mentioned as one that helped tide the plantations over the month-long lowtemperature. Dr. Agustin Molina, regional coordinator for Bioversity International Commodities for Livelihood- Asia-Pacific , met with Dr. Yi Ganjun, director of GDAAS' Institute of Fruit Tree Research, during the early part of the year, and saw first hand some of the devastations in Guangdong and Guangxi provinces, including the mitigating measures that farmers undertook to rehabilitate the damaged banana crops. GDAAS mentioned that it was in 1999 when a similar weather condition struck China. (With reports from Dr. Yi Ganjun and Dr. Li Chunyu, GDAAS, China * Comments: Post a Comment	Archive October 2002 November 2002 December 2002 January 2003 February 2003 March 2003 April 2003 May 2003 June 2003 July 2003 August 2003 September 2003 October 2003 November 2003 December 2003 January 2004 February 2004 March 2004 April 2004 May 2004 June 2004 July 2004 August 2004 September 2004 October 2004 November 2004 December 2004 January 2005 February 2005 March 2005 April 2005 May 2005 June 2005 July 2005 August 2005 September 2005 October 2005 November 2005 December 2005 January 2006 February 2006 March 2006 April 2006 May 2006 June 2006 July 2006 August 2006 September 2006 October 2006 November 2006 December 2006 January 2007 February 2007 March 2007 April 2007 May 2007 June 2007 July 2007 August 2007 September 2007 October 2007 November 2007 December 2007 January 2008 February 2008 March 2008 April 2008 May 2008 June 2008 July 2008 August 2008 September 2008 October 2008 November 2008 December 2008 January 2009 February 2009 March 2009 April 2009 May 2009 June 2009 July 2009 August 2009 September 2009 October 2009 November 2009 January 2010 RSS Feed Alternative feed Contact Tevita Something new: Agrobiodiversity Weblog: For discussions of conservation and sustainable use of the genetic resources of crops, livestock and their wild relatives. 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