Pushing back flaps of yellowing banana leaves, Moisés Pulido trudges through a layer of dusty soil covering his plantation on the coast of La Palma. Under the blinding sun, batches of bananas are just about visible under the treetops, nestled together in lime-green bunches.

In late 2021, when the Cumbre Vieja volcano erupted on the western edge of this island in the Atlantic Ocean, burying 300 hectares (about 740 acres) of banana trees in ash and destroying 200 more, farmers like Mr. Pulido couldn’t imagine the volcano was doing them any favors.

But the Cumbre Vieja eruption could actually hold some of the answers to keeping bananas viable in the future, not just here but elsewhere.

Why We Wrote This

Cavendish bananas, the world's most popular type, are under threat from a fungus that

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