The country's abaca and banana industry is severely threatened by bunchy-top disease-the most widespread and prevalent disease of the said industry.

The Philippines Council for Agriculture, Forestry and Natural Resources Research and Development (PCCARD) views the problem caused by the disease as alarming considering the damage of about 16,737 hectares of abaca plantation in Leyte and Samar and 9,651 hectares in Bicol, as reported by the Fiber Industry Development Authority (FIDA).

FIDA also reported that disease infections in different municipalities in Leyte and Samar ranged from 18 percent to as high as 95 percent.

For bananas, disease infections in various regions of the country ranged from 25 percent to as high as 90 percent. High incidence of the banana bunchy-top virus was noted in almost all the regions in the country-in the Ilocos, Cagayan Valley, Central Luzon, Southern Tagalog, Bicol, Southern Mindanao, Central Mindanao and Caraga.

The disease is viewed as a major blow to the country's abaca and banana industry, one of the major economic pillar in terms of employment generation and foreign exchange earnings.

In a recent forum entitled "Economic Implications of Banana and Abaca "Bunchay-Top Disease" sponsored by Southeast Asian Ministry of Education Organization regional Center for Graduate Study and Research in Agriculture, Dr. Patricio S. Faylon, PCARRD executive director, emphasized that addressing the problem requires strict policy measures.

These include the adoption of legal quarantine procedures to prevent the spread of the disease, government declaration and identification of disease-free production areas for expansion programs, and provision of adequate funds to support the establishment of efficient tissue culture facilities and diagnostic laboratories.

Several institutions have been through appropriate research and development (R&D) and action programs in collaboration with the local government units of the affected areas.

These programs include, among others, the production of disease-free planting materials through tissue culture, conduct of farmers' field school technical training, consultation dissemination through the media.

For banana, R&D activities focus mainly on the establishment and maintenance of germplasm collections, development of disease-free planting materials, rehabilitations of virus-infected growing areas, and establishment of tissue culture laboratories, among other things.

One of the strengths of the industry is the existence of the International Network for the Improvement of Banana and Plantain, an international organization based in the country which has extended a lot of information and logistics on germplasm improvement and disease management.