Sigatoka, Science, and Control - Banana Cultures - page 98

on visual aesthetic qualities. Scattered studies—including one by United
Fruit's Vining Dunlap—produced during the 1950s confirmed the ability
of shade to inhibit the rate of Sigatoka infection, but there is no evidence
to suggest that United Fruit experimented with shade plants. 63
Caribbean-based scientists also tried to breed Sigatoka-resistant ba-
nana plants. In 1937, Imperial College of Tropical Agriculture (ICTA) re-
searchers reported that several commercial varieties, including the Gros
Michel, Congo, Dwarf Cavendish and Governor bananas, all proved to
be highly susceptible to Sigatoka ''under plantation conditions.'' A survey
of ICTA's collection indicated that eight varieties were relatively resistant
to the pathogen, but five of these were cooking bananas (i.e., plantains)
and two others were sterile and offered little hope for raising seedlings
of commercial importance. 64 Drawing on their experiences breeding for
Panama disease resistance, the authors commented that ''the numerous
other qualities required of a commercial banana remain the samewhether
it is to be bred resistant to wilt or to a leaf spot, and evidence has accu-
mulated that combining those qualities in a single plant is the real prob-
lem of banana breeding, rather than disease resistance alone.'' 65 Standard
Fruit's trials with the IC 2, an ICTA hybrid, reconfirmed the diculties
of introducing a new variety on U.S. mass markets. The company began
commercial shipments of IC 2 in 1944. The variety showed a high level of
resistance to Sigatoka, shipped well, and ripened like Gros Michel fruit.
In 1950, IC 2 exports reached 400,000 bunches, but the success was short-
lived;StandardFruitdiscontinuedIC2shipmentsin1954duetothepreva-
lence of ''short-fingered winter fruit'' that had become ''unacceptable'' on
mass markets. 66
Neither biological nor cultural controls for Sigatoka were widely
adopted by export banana producers in Central America. Nevertheless, a
comparisonofUnitedFruitscientists'approachestoSigatokaandthoseof
Caribbean-based researchers illustrates the relationship between the pro-
duction of knowledge about Sigatoka and the contexts in which scientists
worked. United Fruit's initial turn toward fast-acting chemical fungicides
to control Sigatoka was no doubt linked to the sense of urgencycreated by
the swift-moving pathogen, but the system also reflected the company's
deep financial resources, the flat, well-watered conditions found in the
Sula valley (recall the fruit companies' irrigation concessions), and large-
scale production units. In addition, the historical significance of Sigatoka,
like that of Panama disease, resulted from mass production/mass con-
sumption dynamics. Although the fruit companies' responses to the two
pathogens were quite different, they were similarlycircumscribed by both