Program Leader joins new global fight against banana disease
Queensland’s efforts to control and contain Panama TR4 will join forces with those around the world in a new capacity building initiative by the International Plant Protection Convention (IPPC).
Panama TR4 Program Leader, Rhiannon Evans, has been inducted onto the IPPC’s Implementation and Capacity Development Committee on Tropical Race 4, which will focus on Panama TR4 prevention, preparedness, and response.
Ms Evans joins Panama TR4 specialists from ten countries across four continents who met for the first time in September.
“Our Program has developed a suite of procedures and materials that may contribute to the global effort to protect the world’s banana growing regions,” said Ms Evans.
“This committee also offers us a valuable opportunity to cross reference how other nations have responded to the disease and learn from their experiences.”
According to the United Nations’ Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), Panama TR4 is ‘recognised as one of the most aggressive and destructive fungi in the history of agriculture and the world’s greatest threat to banana production’.
The Panama TR4 Program offered 80 documents to the FAO earlier this year following a call for phytosanitary technical resources on TR4. The documents included strategies, standard operating procedures, forms and communication materials among others.
The IPPC is an intergovernmental treaty signed by over 180 countries, aiming to protect the world’s plant resources from the spread and introduction of pests, and promoting safe trade.
The IPPC’s Implementation and Capacity Development Committee on Tropical Race 4 will be tasked with:
developing a brief plan in line with the Commission on Phytosanitary Measures’ Focus Group on Pest Outbreak Alert and Response Systems recommendations;
compiling information on Panama TR4; and
developing global materials for prevention, preparedness, and response.