Pushing the shutters back of yellowing banana leaves, the Pulido molds tremble through a dusty layer of ground covering its plantation on the coast of the Palma. Under the blinding sun, the prizes of bananas are almost visible under the peaks, nestled together in lemon green clusters.
At the end of 2021, when the Vieja volcano broke out on the west edge of this island in the Atlantic Ocean, buried 300 hectares (around 740 acres) of bananas in ashes and destroying 200 more, farmers like Mr. Pulido could not imagine that the volcano made them favors.
But the eruption of Cumbre Vieja could in fact contain some of the answers to keep the bananas viable in the future, not only here but elsewhere.
Why we wrote this
Cavendish bananas, the most popular type in the world, are threatened with a fungus that has destroyed other varieties. But the island of the Palma may only have the conditions to protect them.
A fungus behind the disease known as the fusarium wilting – or Panama’s disease – threat of bananas in the world. Some say that the fungus, which blocks the flow of water and nutrients to the plant through its roots, could cause the extinguishing of popular cavendish banana.
But unlike tropical areas such as certain parts of India and China, where most bananas in the world are produced, the subtropical climate of the Canary Islands – and the west coast of the Palma, in particular – have provided a path of resistance to wilting.
Indeed, the volcanic ashes that farmers once deplored after the eruption of Cumbre Vieja contains vital nutrients which protect the plant – and could be a key to bananas survival.
“Tropical cultures, such as bananas, develop more slowly and are less productive [here] In tropical places, “explains Antonio Marrero, associate professor of agricultural and environmental engineering at the University of La Laguna in San Cristóbal de la Laguna, in Spain.” But, in exchange, many diseases of tropical places are absent in the Canary Islands “.
The volcano gift
This is not the first time that banana agriculture has been threatened existential in Panama disease. In the 1950s, the withering of the banana swept the plantations of the banana of Gros Michel then dominant, leading the variety almost to extinction.
The market quickly turned to the Cavendish banana because of its resistance to wilting. But new variants of the fungus emerged, some threatened just as potentially for the Cavendish that the original wilting was for the Gros Michel. Although the fungus has been found in certain wetlands of the Canary Islands, this variant is not the most damaging type.
When farmers find Wilt, they use common sense measures, such as infested soil recovery. But post-volcano, on what farmers like Mr. Pulido call “Virgin Soil”, it would be difficult for the fungus to survive.
“Whenever there is a flow of lava, time is reset to zero,” explains Jesús S. Notario del Pino, professor of science and geology of the soil at the University of Laguna. The life of bananas “starts again”.
Part of this logic is obvious. But the fungus is able to live for 20 years under the ground. And most bananas in the world – the Palma included – are monocrops. This means that they are cultivated in massive and dedicated plantations that do not push anything else. And all bananas are genetic copies of each other, which makes them easy to produce but vulnerable to pathogens. When the scourge arrives, it can spread viciously.
Not only do volcanic eruptions kill the fungus, but the volcanic ashes of the eruption of Vieja Cumbre also reconstructed the soil with nutrients such as iron and zinc, and have reduced the incidence of the withering of bananas, according to Dr. Marrero. The volcanic soil is also rich in potassium, on which bananas depend strongly to develop.
However, like most other cultures, bananas cannot be cultivated directly on volcanic soil. It takes decades for the alteration process to break down hardened lava into fertile land. Instead, local farmers must finely crush the lava and use it as a substrate before pouring fresh organic matter in other excessive regions – a practice they have been doing for over a century.
“Otherwise,” said Mr. Notario del Pino, “they just have to wait.”
The risks of monocpulation
Farmers like Fran Garlaz say that even with the soil and the resistant climate of the Canary Islands, the potential risks that accompany monocroping are larger than any disease.
In Ecofinca Platological,, An organic farm in the coastal city of Puerto Naos, Mr. Garlaz teaches visitors the advantages of biodiversity. At one end of the site, it grows bananas. The other, a miniature jungle of suspended vines and lush vegetable life, is dedicated to experimentation. About 200 crops grow here.
“Biodiversity is fundamental,” explains Mr. Garlaz, pulling a knife from a foot from a case to his hip and taking a quarter -size cut from the base of a banana tree. Once the bananas have borne fruit, they die. By planting the crushing next to an existing tree, a new growing, he says. “Monocpulation is neither logical nor sustainable.”
But Mr. Garlaz is an aberrant value. Despite the efforts of small farmers to diversify the crops, almost half of the cultivated land of the Palma are covered in banana plantations.
However, even if the Visja volcano has erased almost 40% of the production of bananas in the Palma and that the threat of wilting is never out of sight, farmers say that monocroping is not a point of discussion. In La Palma, Banana Farming offers 10,000 jobs to 85,000 residents of the island. From the volcanic eruption, most farmers here are just trying to get back on their feet.
Mr. Pulido says he had always planned to rebuild the farm he lost in 2021. In the coming days, workers from his local cooperative plan to reduce the first batch of bananas that has grown since Cumbre Vieja destroyed his farm. He says that neither volcano nor mushroom will be on his way.
“I never thought of stopping,” explains Mr. Pulido. “It is for our children, but also in honor of our parents and our grandparents. It is a question of personal pride. ”
Publisher’s note: History, which was initially published in March. 28, 2025, was updated to clarify the amount of land on the palma dedicated to banana plantations.
