Photo: News 18

The famed saffron variety of mangoes of India’s Gujarat State is being affected by an unknown disease that is causing mangoes to fall from trees in several orchards. Hopes were high for a good crop after orchards entered into full bloom this season, despite unseasonal rains. That was until crops were infected with a white fungus in Gir and surrounding areas. According to one horticulture official, spraying can eradicate the white fungus but it was not enough to save much of this year’s crop.

Valencian citrus association CGC has demanded radical EU measures to combat negra black spot after 2,000ha were found to be infected in Tunisia. The area in Nabeul (Tunisia), the first in the Mediterranean, demonstrates how the dangerous fungus adapts to our climate. According to the CGC, this should force the EC to rectify and include this pathogen in the list of priority pests.

Fungus might provide the solution to a disease that strikes tomatoes. Scientists from the University of Florida are working on this method as a means to help control Fusarium wilt. Tomatoes represent Florida’s main vegetable crop, with 28,000 acres commercially harvested in 2017, worth US$262 million. Funded by a three-year grant from the USDA, associate professor of plant pathology, Gary Vallad, is working with colleagues from other universities to develop an approach using a fungus called trichoderma to combat Fusarium wilt.