Submit Manuscript | http://medcraveonline.com Introduction Banana is an important horticultural crop in Indonesia, but in many parts of the country, especially in the Eastern part, it is also consumed as staple food. According to FAO, 1 banana production in Indonesia steadily increased from 6,189,052 tonnes in 2012 to 9,496,058 tonnes in 2015, but dropped to 7,007,125 tonnes in 2016. The Province of East Nusa Tenggara produces 148,278 tonnes tonnes in 2018, dropped to 108,298 tonnes in 2015, increased to 140,825 tonnes in 2016, but dropped again to just 92,988 tonnes in 2017. 2 Sumba is an island in the province where banana widely cultivated. Various diseases may be involved but other factors could also contribute to the decrease of banana production in Indonesia and in the Province of East Nusa Tenggara. Banana produced in the province consists mostly of cooking banana cultivars, refecting the importance of banana as staple in the region. The production of banana in the province have started to increase since the demand for banana from the neighbouring province of Bali increased after banana in the province was destroyed by blood disease and other diseases such as fusarium wilt, sigatoka disease complex, and banana bunchy top. 3–5 Farmer in East Nusa Tenggara took the opportunity by going bananas in expanding banana cultivation using planting material taken indiscriminately from wherever available, most likely providing a vehicle for seedling-borne pathogen such as blood disease bacterium to spread to new areas where blood disease of banana has not been reported. 5 The spread of such a destructive disease to a region where banana plays various important roles will certainly cause several implications. This article focuses on such implications on socio-economics and biosecurity of banana cultivation in Sumba Island which has never been explored earlier. A Follow-up survey The incidence of a devastating disease of banana in Sumba Island was reported by the Head of Agriculture Services of the District of Southwest Sumba in 2012. The Head of the Agriculture Service asked Nusa Cendana University (Undana) to investigate the disease, especially to identify the causal agent, as the basis for the local government to recommend an appropriate control measure. In responding to the request, Undana sent a team of plant pathologists and undergraduate students to carry out a disease survey in the district in 2013. Based on observations on feld symptoms and morphology characteristics of the suspected pathogen cultured in the laboratory, it was concluded that the disease was most likely blood disease of banana. 6,7 To make sure about the causal agent and the spread of the disease, a later survey covering all districts in the island was carried out in 2017 in collaboration with the University of Queensland with funding support from Plant Biosecurity Cooperative Research Centre, Australia. During this survey, samples of diseased and healthy banana tissue were taken for identifcation using PCR test at the laboratory of the University of Queensland. 8 The result of the test confrmed that the disease was indeed caused by a member of Ralstonia complex bacteria recently renamed by Safni, 9 as Ralstonia syzygii subspecies celebecensis. 8,5,10 The blood disease caused by this bacterium had been reported earlier from the neighbouring islands of Sumbawa and Lombok. 11 Following the above survey, another survey by Mudita et al. 3 was carried out with objectives, among others, to understand the socio- economics and biosecurity implications of the disease. For this survey, Horticult Int J. 2018;2(6):347‒350. 347 © 2018 Mudita et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and build upon your work non-commercially. Go bananas no more: socio-economic and biosecurity implications of blood disease of banana in sumba island, the province of east nusa tenggara, Indonesia Volume 2 Issue 6 - 2018 I W Mudita, 1 FL Benu 2 1 Senior Lecturer and Researcher in Crop Protection and Biosecurity, Nusa Cendana University, Indonesia 2 Professor in Agricultural Economics, Faculty of Agriculture, Nusa Cendana University, Indonesia Correspondence: FL Benu Professor in Agricultural Economics, respectively, Faculty of Agriculture, Nusa Cendana University, Kupang, Indonesia, corresponding, Email Received: November 15, 2018 | Published: December 04, 2018 Abstract Banana is important horticultural crop in Indonesia, including in Sumba island geographically located in the drier part of the country. Indeed, Indonesia is the world’s centre of origin and diversity of banana. Unfortunately, along with banana domestication, there evolve banana diseases, among which blood disease of banana caused by Ralstonia complex bacteria recently identified as Ralstonia syzygii subspecies celebecensis is one among the most destructive. After almost a century being confined within its place of origin in Selayar Island and the neighboring mainland South Sulawesi, the disease finally reached Sumba Island in early 2010s. The disease is now destroying banana in the island, causing significant economic losses to farmers who had just enjoyed go bananas from an increasing demand from the neighbouring island of Bali where the disease has destroyed banana since a decade earlier. In addition, the spread of the disease in Sumba Island has threaten banana biosecurity in the neighbouring island of Timor and Flores and the surrounding smaller islands. Keywords: banana, blood disease of banana, socio-economic implications, banana biosecurity Horticulture International Journal Research Article Open Access