A resistant fungus which wilts banana and plantain plants and infects soil could worsen the food crisis in Venezuela, where 6.5 million people already suffer hunger, growers groups and a United Nations agency say.
The Fusarium tropical race 4 fungus has so far been located in the central states of Aragua, Carabobo and Cojedes.
Malave said he tried various remedies over the years, without knowing exactly what was affecting his plants. Annual inflation was a staggering 471% in April, according to the independent Venezuelan Observatory of Finances. "If people don't have their banana, they don't have a source of energy and they don't have money to buy that energy from other sources, so it's a double punishment," said Bonte.
It is unclear how fusarium, detected in neighboring Colombia three years ago and in Peru last year, arrived in Venezuela, but it could have come via a contaminated plant, truck or even on footwear.
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