Heavy, sustained rainfall outside the normal rainy season has triggered an upsurge in the spread of Mycosphaerella fijiensis, the fungus that causes Black Sigatoka disease, in banana plantations south of Lake Maracaibo in northwestern Venezuela. Flooding has affected around 15,000 of the 67,000 hectares of banana plantations in the area, where there are some 2,500 banana trees per hectare, biologist Melitón Bracho told Tierramérica.

“The fungus, which was first brought to Venezuela in 1991 through plant waste carried by the Catatumbo River from Colombia, has advanced considerably,” he added.