30 years of banana diversity hosted in Belgium
Leuven, 23 January 2017
Banana is one of the world’s favourite fruits. Grown throughout the tropics and subtropics, bananas provide food, nutrition and income to hundreds of millions of people. They are a staple crop in many countries, such as Uganda, Rwanda and Burundi, where people consume up to 11 bananas each per day. In Uganda, the local word for bananas – matooke – means food.
Globally, a wide diversity of banana (Musa spp.) is cultivated and consumed – it is estimated that there are more than 500 banana varieties. However, over 40% of all cultivars grown worldwide belong to only one genetically narrow subgroup of dessert bananas – the Cavendish. The tendency to replace local diversity with a single high-yielding cultivar as a monocrop is increasing every year, even in smallholder fields, sometimes resulting in complete loss of local diversity. The risks associated with relying on one or a few genetically similar cultivars of a crop are well known, as the Irish Potato Famine demonstrated in the 19th Century.
There is an urgent need to protect and further explore the diversity of banana, both wild and cultivated. A broad genetic base is necessary to make the crop more productive, resistant to pests and diseases, and resilient to climate change.
The Bioversity International Musa Germplasm Transit Centre (ITC) is home to the world’s largest collection of banana diversity. Its mission? To contribute to the secure long-term conservation of the entire banana genepool and hold the collection in trust for the benefit of current and future generations under the auspices of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the UN.
Founded in 1985, the ITC is managed by Bioversity International and hosted at the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, Belgium. The collection contains more than 1,500 samples (or as scientists say, accessions) of edible and wild species of banana, and the collection continues to grow as new specimens are collected in the crop’s centres of diversity in South-east Asia, and East and West Africa.
KU Leuven organises an event on 23 January from 1 to 6 pm. There will be a guided tour of the facilities and keynote speakers presentations.
For the logistics on how to get to the venue, please refer to: http://www.biodiversity.be/3333