FAO panel warns plant pests, TR4 banana fungus threaten global food supply

Summary

A Food and Agriculture Organization panel warned that changing climate conditions are expanding plant pests and diseases; FAO Director-General Qu Dongyu urged early detection, rapid response and coordinated global control, citing the spread of TR4 banana fungus and large numbers of affected farmers.

The Food and Agriculture Organization convened a panel Monday to address rising threats from plant pests and diseases as global temperatures and changing weather patterns shift pest distributions and intensity, the U.N. news brief said.

FAO Director-General Qu Dongyu told the meeting that early detection, rapid response and coordinated control efforts worldwide are indispensable. The FAO Commission on Phytosanitary Measures is working on measures that include efforts to eradicate the TR4 banana fungus (Tropical Race 4), which FAO reporting said has surged with climate change and has caused yield losses affecting an estimated 400,000,000 farmers.

The commission’s work faces complications from changing growing conditions that alter the geographic distribution of pests and blight, the FAO summary said. The U.N. news brief emphasized the need for international cooperation in surveillance and rapid response to limit irreversible damage to the global food supply.

Daniel Johnson, UN News, compiled the U.N. news brief.