SOURCE: Zulfiqar Kunbhar, Arab News HYDERABAD, Sindh: Scientists in Pakistan’s southeast Sindh province have begun extracting fiber from banana waste in what textile industry stakeholders and farmers hope could become an alternative to cotton. Banana fiber is one of the strongest natural fibers. Biodegradable and similar to bamboo fiber, itContinue Reading
SOURCE: Vincent D’Silva, New Strait Times Three Form Four students of SM I.J. Convent here won second prize at the National Tinkering Challenge 2021 held in Kuala Lumpur recently for developing packaging material from banana stems. Some 200 students nationwide took part in the competition, which called for submissions forContinue Reading
SOURCE: Hannah Osborne, Newsweek A “devastating” disease that makes bananas look like they are bleeding when stems are cut has been found in mainland Malaysia and looks set to spread across southeast Asia, scientists have said. Banana Blood disease is caused by a type of bacteria that causes the plantContinue Reading
SOURCE: Puja Daya, IAEA Office of Public Information and Communication Considered the most lethal banana disease in the world, the Fusarium wilt or Panama wilt, is a killer that is rapidly spreading in Latin America and hurting global supplies of the world’s most popular export banana variety — the Cavendish.Continue Reading
We wish you all a happy 2022! On behalf of the TFNet Chairperson and Board of Trustees, the Secretariat would like to thank all esteemed members, partners, and stakeholders for your support in 2021. The past year has enhanced the dynamics of our usual way of partnership engagements through virtualContinue Reading
SOURCE: Fresh Fruit Portal The U.S. is set to allow avocado imports from the Mexican state of Jalisco, officially beginning in June 2022. This year is on track to be the last year Michoacán will be the only Mexican state supplying the U.S. with avocados for the Super Bowl. TheContinue Reading
SOURCE: The Sun Daily The floods that hit some states since last Saturday have resulted in 151 pineapple farmers incurring losses from the 125.9 hectares affected by the disaster. Malaysian Pineapple Industry Board (LPNM) chairman, Datuk Dr Sahruddin Jamal said the floods had mainly affected the pineapple farmers in threeContinue Reading
SOURCE: Maura Maxwell, Fruitnet Honduran banana exports continue to feel the impact of hurricanes Eta and Iota, which struck Central America country at the end of 2020. Figures from the Central Bank of Honduras show that the value of exports dropped US$200.5m to September, compared to the year-earlier period. TheContinue Reading
SOURCE: The Star Kenya topped Africa’s avocado exports last year and was among the world’s top 10 producers, with Murang’a leading with 31 percent of total production. However, the country only exported 10 percent of its total avocado production an indicator that the market potential is not fully exploited. HorticultureContinue Reading
SOURCE: Business World Mango farmers who do not properly manage canopy growth run the risk of less productive cultivation because the overlap in trees forces fruit to grow in the shade, to the detriment of quality and harvest volume, agronomists said. Graciela L. Caballero, who chairs the agroforestry department atContinue Reading
SOURCE: Ben Harden, Queensland Country Life After cyclonic winds, associated with tropical cyclone Niran, devastated the Capricorn Coast’s banana industry in early March, several banana farms are now getting back to full production. Hundreds of hectares of banana trees across the Cassowary Coast and Northern Tablelands were impacted, with someContinue Reading