Grade 6 English: Comprehension & Language Workbook - Bananas , livre ebook
10
pages
English
Ebooks
2022
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10
pages
English
Ebooks
2022
Obtenez un accès à la bibliothèque pour le consulter en ligne En savoir plus
A comprehension and language in context workbook with a banana theme.
Voir
st English 1 Language
Grade 6
Comprehension and Language: Bananas Bananas are one of the most important crops on Earth. According to the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), 400 million people rely on bananas as a source of food or income. However, the bananas we know and love may be at risk of extinction.Around the world, banana plants are dying at an alarming rate. They are being attacked by a form of Panama disease called Tropical Race 4 (TR4). Farmers, experts, and industry leaders have feared the day that TR4 would hit Latin America and the Caribbean. About 85% of bananas exported worldwide are grown there. On August 8, 2019, those fears came true. Colombia declared a national emergency as cases of TR4 were confirmed at six banana farms in the country. “In Colombia, [TR4] is incredibly difficult to control,” scientist James Dale toldTIME for Kids. “Everybody is absolutely petrified about what’s going to happen.” When Good Bananas Go Bad TR4 is a fungus that lives in soil. It infects banana plants through the roots and moves into the stems. There, it prevents water and nutrients from reaching the plant’s leaves. The plant turns yellow, then it dries up and dies. It can take six months to a year for farmers to spot TR4 in a field of banana plants. By then, it’s hard to treat the disease. Farmers can only try to stop the spreading. Unfortunately, TR4 spreads easily, from plant to plant and from farm to farm. “With increased human transportation, travel, and trade... no country is immune to the disease,” Fazil Dusunceli of the FAO says. Part of the problem is that 99% of bananas exported are of the same variety: Cavendish. This is helpful for the banana industry. Large companies can grow more bananas when they grow only one kind, which means they can make more money. A lack of diversity is not good for nature. All Cavendish bananas are genetically the same. As a result of this, when a disease such as TR4 strikes, they are all equally vulnerable. “Eating Cavendish [bananas] is making the situation worse,” says Altus Viljoen, a professor who studies plant diseases. Viljoen and other experts say we should diversify the types of bananas we are growing and eating. This might mean snacking on less-common bananas, such as the Manzano, which tastes like apple and strawberry.
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