Wheat zone goes bananas
What started as a small experiment to show wheat farmers how to grow a type of Grande Naine that produces large fruits is catching on.

Improving East African Highland bananas
As part of an initiative to establish collaborations between Irish universities and agricultural research centres of the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research, NUI Galway Botany and Plant Science will partner with the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture to improve the productivity of East African Highland bananas.

Updated October 2009

Special issue on the domestication of bananas
The open-access journal Ethnobotany Research and Applications has published the papers prepared for the Special Session on the history of the domestication of edible bananas that took place during the Sixth World Archaeological Congress held in 2008 in Dublin, Ireland. The articles on bananas start on page 163.

Growing bananas in Hawaii
The methods used by Hawaiian producers to grow bananas are presented in a 30-minute video written, produced and directed by Scot Nelson of the University of Hawaii. His website also contains photos on more than 30 pest and disease problems of bananas as well as other resources, including documents and videos on the banana bunchy top virus.

Has blood disease reached Malaysia?
In response to a posting on the appearance of an unknown disease in Malaysia, Ivan Buddenhagen speculates that it could be blood disease.

Fighting bunchy top by controlling its vector
As part of a campaign to eradicate banana bunchy top disease from all commercial plantations on the far north coast of New South Wales in Australia, entomologists from the NSW Department of Primary Industries will be testing, in field and glasshouse trials, alternatives to dimethoate to control aphids.

Bunchy top threatens unique cultivars in India
Two cultivars, Virupaksha and Sirumalai, traditionally intercropped with coffee in Tamil Nadu, India, are threatened by the banana bunchy top virus.

Reactions to workshop on emerging banana diseases in Africa
The International workshop on meeting the challenges of emerging disease threats to banana in sub-Saharan Africa held in Arusha, Tanzania, was covered by the New York Times, the East African, the BBC and Voice of America, among others. A letter to the East African points out that management methods already exist to contain Xanthomonas wilt.