Panama disease Panama disease Panama disease is a plant disease of the roots of banana plants. It is a type of fusarium wilt, caused by the fungal pathogen "Fusarium oxysporum" f. sp." cubense" (Foc). The pathogen is resistant to fungicide and cannot be controlled chemically. During the 1950s, Panama disease wiped out most commercial Gros Michel banana production. The Gros Michel banana was the dominant cultivar of bananas, and the blight inflicted enormous costs and forced producers to switch to other, disease-resistant cultivars. New strains of Panama disease currently threaten the production of today's most popular cultivar, Cavendish. Two external symptoms help
Crop weed Crop weed Crop weeds are weeds that grow amongst crops. Examples of crop weeds include chickweed, barnyard grass, dandelion, striga and fallopia japonica. Despite the potential for some crop weeds to be used as a food source, many can also prove harmful to crops, both directly and indirectly. Crop weeds can inhibit the growth of crops, contaminate harvested crops and often spread rapidly. They can also host crop pests such as aphids, fungal rots and viruses. Cost increases and yield losses occur as a result. Striga, one of the main cereal crop weeds in Sub-Saharan Africa, commonly causes yield losses