Demonstrating the need for a multi-disciplinary approach to address the threats in our local banana production, the Institute of Plant Breeding (IPB) recently implemented a 15-year core-funded program that deals with banana varietal improvement activities of the institute. The banana breeding program envisions harmonizing the existing research outputs and identifying other researchable areas with improved and value-added banana varieties, both for local and international markets. It integrates cutting-edge technologies into traditional breeding programs for the precise and efficient introgression of economically important traits to meet the market’s demands. This program, however, cannot move forward without the support of external grants. Hence, the currently proposed project to address the risks posed by the possible Fusarium wilt epidemic will not only address the disease per se. It can also kick off the generation of most of the necessary baseline information to initiate the banana breeding activities of the Institute and, of course, the country as a whole.