Philippine Lacatan banana tree at market – from the extensive and fascinating Market Manilla website. The Lacatan is the Philippine’s “comfort food” banana, and one of the world’s most delicious.
One of the most frustrating elements of fighting banana disease (or any disease) is that quarantine actually works – but only in theory. For over a century, attempts to isolate infected bananas from healthy ones have been attempted, and failed. These efforts have, in fact, generally made things worse, because they’ve often been accompanied by denial on the part of banana producers that the problem needs to be attacked on other levels, as well (or denial that quarantine is mostly ineffective.)
But clean farming can make a difference: it can boost crop yields, and slow the spread of disease – crucially important to subsistence farmers, for whom even cutting a percentage of loss can be lifesaving. And there have been considerable successes in some recent quarantine programs. Pakistani officials are now offering a pilot program in managing banana diseases that’s different from traditional efforts, which have usually involved in the field training. This one is all-electronic. In my book, I describe how ambitious field programs in Pakistan failed in the early part of this decade. I don’t know whether on-site instruction works better than these self-paced versions – but the Philippines is both a banana paradise (with huge plantations and breeding variety) and a center of banana disease, so the effort is absolutely necessary.
Here’s how the course introduces itself to first-time participants:
“Have you experienced tremendous yield loss in your banana due to diseases? Have you tried several methods to combat these, yet all proved ineffective? Well, worry no more for you just found the right niche that’ll shun away your farming woes. Congratulations! You are about to start the journey towards achieving a high quality, disease-free banana. Welcome to the online course on Managing Common Diseases in Banana!”
I guess every school needs cheerleaders. Here’s a direct link (registration required) to the nine-part program, which is called “Managing Common Disease in Banana.”
Nobel Prize winner Paul Krugman 
