Over a thousand hectares of banana plantations in the Philippines have been infected by a disease that has destroyed banana plantations in other Southeast Asian nations, and farm owners on Monday warned agriculture officials that it could wipe out the Philippine banana industry in three years unless it is managed now.

A disease called Fusarium wilt has been killing banana plants in the region, and it will continue to do so as long as the fast-spreading fungus that causes it remains uncontrolled, said Stephen Antig, executive director of the Filipino Banana Growers and Exporters Association.

"So far, it has already infected 1,200 hectares (2,950 acres) of banana plantations locally, although that figure can go higher," Antig told AFP.

"If we can not contain this and it remains unchecked, then in less than three years our banana industry will die."

The Philippines is the second biggest exporter of bananas in the world behind Ecuador with about 70,000 hectares of plantations, in effect directly employing 280,000 people, AFP reports.

The banana sector is also the country's fifth largest export industry, with the Cavendish variety being the most lucrative, as it is the most popular type of banana around the world.

"Losing this industry will have a huge impact on our economy," Antig said.

Antig further said Fusarium wilt wiped out the then-popular Gros Michel bananas in Central America and the Caribbean in the 1960s. It also destroyed Cavendish plantations in Indonesia and Malaysia in the 1990s.

Traces of the fungus were found in controllable levels in the Philippines five years ago, Antig said, noting a more virulent type of the fungus emerged last month and quickly began spreading through plantations in the southern region of Mindanao, where most of the country's banana exports come from.

Antig urged the government to immediately establish a research institute that would work on a banana variety that is resistant to Fusarium wilt, AFP reports.