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Netters
You remember the way these studies were bombarded up
on us few days ago? Here we are now with studies again facing another side. Can
we as Africans filter through what is real and not? I hope we are smart enough.
These are people who put up numbers for through numbers they get funding. In
fact funding in North America is solely based on numbers, and you dare bring
numbers based on facts, you will sterve. So here we are with 45% of all African
women infected with AIDS. The defence rests.
Em
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Bananas Are Not Going Anywhere
2-17-3
- Washington (ANI) --
Contrary to an article recently published in New Scientist, which
depicted possible extinction of bananas due to the impact of two
diseases, called Black Sigatoka and Panama disease, a new report by a
plant pathologist with the American Phytopathological Society (APS) says
otherwise.
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- "Diseases are, and will remain, major constraints to
both export and subsistence production of banana, and there is no doubt
that Black Sigatoka and Panama disease constitute the most important
threats," said Randy C. Ploetz, Professor at the University of Florida's
Tropical Research and Education Center. "However, it is unlikely that
these problems will cause production to decrease greatly in the next
decade, let alone that the crop will become extinct," said
Ploetz.
-
- According to Ploetz, Black Sigatoka affects diverse
bananas used in subsistence agriculture, as well as the Cavendish
cultivars that are used in export production.
-
- It is a serious foliar disease, but does not kill
plants and is well controlled in export plantations with
fungicides.
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- In contrast, Panama disease is soil-borne and fatal. A
new variant of the pathogen, tropical race 4, affects Cavendish
cultivars in Southeast Asia and, thus, has raised concerns in the export
trades.
-
- The spread of tropical race 4 to the Americas would
require either infected banana suckers or infested soil to be imported
from Asia, both of which are strictly forbidden in the export-producing
countries, said Ploetz.
-
- "If tropical race 4 did spread to the Western
Hemisphere, damage would be restricted by the containment and
eradication measures that would follow and the fact that the export
trades rely on pathogen-free, tissue cultured plants to establish
plantations," he said.
-
- Ploetz said development of new hybrid bananas, as well
as those produced via genetic transformation, must continue in order to
supply producers with productive cultivars that resist important
diseases, nematodes and insects. (ANI)
-
- Copyright � 2001 ANI-Asian News International. All
rights reserved.
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