Millions of banana plants in the southern Chinese city of Guangzhou, capital of Guangdong Province, have been wiped out by Panama disease, the Beijing News has reported.

Panama disease, also called Banana Wilt, is a devastating blight caused by a soil-inhabiting fungus species.

The disease is encroaching on Guangdong's banana plantations by an annual increase of 20 percent. So far, 3,333 hectares - 38.5 percent of the total 8,667 hectares - of banana farms in Guangzhou have been affected by the epidemic.

"The city's major banana production bases, including Fanyu, Zhongshan, and Nansha, are all infected. Millions of banana plants have died and unfortunately we have found no cure for the disease, " said Liu Shaoqin, a researcher with Guangzhou's Academy of Agricultural Science.

In the early stages of infection, about five percent of the banana plants on a farm will perish. A year later, 20 percent will be infected and die. In the third year, the percentage of infection will soar to 50 percent and the whole farm will be destroyed in just four years, according to Liu.

"The disease is the cancer of the plant community," he said.

Professor Chen Houbin, of the South China Agricultural University, said the disease had also affected areas outside Guangzhou.

"Five percent of all the banana plants in Guangdong Province have suffered from the epidemic," Professor Chen said.

"The radius of the affected area is spreading at a rate of 50 kilometers a year. All the banana trees in China will die out in the foreseeable future at this current rate," he said.

But Zhang Xiyan, an expert with the Ministry of Agriculture, told the Shanghai Morning Post that Guangdong's banana plantations would not disappear completely providing all the correct precautionary measures were taken.

"Farmers should root out the sick banana trees, burn them on the spot, and disinfect the soil. To prevent further spread of the disease, farmers should put some lime into the soil," Zhang said.

"Guangzhou's location has led to the city being the worst-affected by the disease. Located at the mouth of the Pearl River, the disease is easily transmitted through the banana trees in Guangzhou by underground water," he said.

Panama disease has had a major impact on the production of a wide range of banana cultivators and is widespread in many regions across Asia, Africa, Australia, and South America.

So far, the world has no effective cure for the disease.

(Xinhua News Agency March 16, 2007)