Bananas are at risk. What does that mean for the world?

At the Global Alliance Against TR4, our purpose is to bring together the world’s efforts to defeat TR4, a fungal disease jeopardizing bananas’ future. We’re a worldwide, multi-stakeholder community, uniting food brands, value chain companies, researchers, trade associations, financial services, the public sector and civil society. We recognize that TR4 is an urgent threat, and that we can fight it more effectively together than we ever could alone. As the Global Alliance, we’re co-ordinating research and training efforts at every stage, from the lab to the plantation. And we’re raising funds and awareness through our business and public engagement campaign, The Banana Action Group.

• Prevention and Training: Working with smallholders in affected areas to implement measures against TR4 – including good biosecurity practices, early identification and containment – and form ‘TR4-proof’ plantations.
• Breeding and Genetics: Using a toolbox of genetic innovations to identify and cultivate new TR4-resistant banana varieties for mass production, ultimately giving bananas a long-term future.
• Methods of Control: Developing control agents, diagnostic tools and detection methods with a wide range of sustainability benefits, including helping stop TR4.

Through these workstreams supported by our partners, we’re already active in some of the world’s largest and most susceptible banana-producing countries, helping make a real difference for banana producers, the land and the economy.