ALMOST half of the world’s banana-growing regions could be lost to climate change in the next five decades, a new report has warned.
Bananas are the world’s most popular fruit — and the fourth most important food crop globally — but rising temperatures, droughts, and fungal infections are threatening the areas where most of the world’s crops grow, in Latin America and the Caribbean (News, 10 March 2023).
Analysis published by Christian Aid this week found that 80 per cent of global banana exports come from this region, and 60 per cent of land currently used for the crop in the region will be unsuitable due to climate change by 2080.
Holly Woodward-Davey, project co-ordinator at Banana Link, which works across the banana supply chain, said: “Banana growers are facing ever more precarious conditions as a consequence of climate change. Water scarcity and increased temperatures lead to lower yields and pressure on the income of rural people. It causes more dangerous working conditions for workers exposed to ever increasing heat.
“Due to heat stress, the banana plant becomes more vulnerable to diseases and infections. Without systemic change, we risk witnessing the devastation of the Cavendish banana to Fusarium Tropical Race 4: a fungal infection that attacks the roots of plants and can lead to the complete loss of farms and plantations. The disease is now found in key supplier countries of European supermarkets, such as Colombia and Peru.”
Bananas need temperatures between 15° and 35° Celsius to grow.
Christian Aid’s report, Going Bananas: How climate change threatens the world’s favourite fruit, recommends that shoppers buy organic bananas where possible, as high use of chemical fertilisers used in banana production contributes to greenhouse gas emissions.
UK consumers eat more bananas than any other European country, eating on average about 85 bananas a year each. But, in some parts of the world, bananas are a staple part of the diet, and essential for daily calories, with more than 400 million people relying on the fruit for up to one quarter of their daily calorie intake.
The director of policy and campaigns at Christian Aid, Osai Ojigho, said: “Bananas are not just the world’s favourite fruit, but they are also an essential food for millions of people. We need to wake up to the danger posed by climate change to this vital crop. The lives and livelihoods of people who have done nothing to cause the climate crisis are already under threat.”
Christian Aid is calling on richer countries to do more to reduce their carbon emissions, and for banana growers and agricultural communities to receive targeted support from international climate finance to help them to adapt to the changing climate.
Aurelia Pop Xo, a banana grower in Guatemala, was interviewed by Christian Aid. She said: “Climate change has been killing our crops. This means there is no income because we cannot sell anything. What is happening is that my plantation has been dying. So, what has been happening, is death.”