While the Svalbard Global Seed Vault celebrated its first anniversary, banana scientists can take comfort in the thought that their favourite crop is also safely backed up, in France.

Once the mainstay of the export trade until Fusarium wilt made its cultivation in large-scale plantations impossible, Gros Michel has found a niche in Congolese man-made forests near the border with Angola.

Xanthomonas wilt, which is commonly known in East Africa as banana Xanthomonas wilt (BXW), banana bacterial wilt or enset wilt, is a devastating disease caused by the bacterium Xanthomonas campestris pv. musacearum. It was first reported in 1968 in Ethiopia, where it remained confined until it was observed in Uganda in 2001. The subsequent spread of the bacterium throughout the Great Lakes region, where banana forms a large proportion of the diet, is posing a serious threat to food security.