Incidence and Distribution of Fusarium Wilt Disease of Banana in Indonesia

Fusarium wilt is a major constraint of banana production in Indonesia. Field observations and sample collections, facilitated by two ACIAR (Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research)-projects, were undertaken to generate a Fusarium wilt distribution and incidence map, based on vegetative compatibility groups (VCG). The activities were conducted from 2006 to 2009 in 15 bananaproducing provinces, where each province involved two districts, each encompassing two banana-producing areas. Fifteen to 20 banana orchards were observed, and vascular strand samples were collected from the same fields. Incidence of Fusarium wilt ranged from 0.08 to 100%, with an average of 23.99±14.41%. Seven VCGs of Fusarium oxysporum f. sp. cubense (Foc) were initially identified, namely VCG 0120- 0120/15, 01213/16, 01218, 0123, 0124/5 and 0126. One third of the total isolates was identified to be Foc tropical race 4 (TR4) VCG 01213/16, which is distributed widely in almost all provinces, infecting local cultivars 'Barangan' (AAA), 'Raja' (AAB) and 'Ambon Hijau' (AAA), as well as other cultivars of different ploidies and genomes. Besides mismanagement by banana farmers, the wide distribution of the disease may be due to the movement of planting materials along with transmigration of people from Java to other islands.