Banana

Working Group Banana, under Division Tropical and Subtropical Fruit and Nuts, brings together Musa researchers spanning all disciplines with the overall goal of ensuring the long-term conservation and increased use of Musa diversity globally. With over 700 members, the Working Group works in the thematic areas of conservation, germplasm health, diversity, evaluation, information and documentation, genomics and bioinformatics, pests and diseases, production systems and value chains. The Working Group partners with MusaNet, established in 2011, a global banana network for collaboration among these thematic groups and portal for related news, publications and capacity building (www.musanet.org). Our vision is to develop healthier and diversified sustainable banana production systems to improve peoples’ livelihoods by safeguarding and mobilizing the potential of Musa diversity. The Working Group also organizes the ISHS International Symposia on Banana and its Acta Horticulturae proceedings.