Bananas and Food Security - Bioversity International

Allocution d’ouverture / Opening speech
Opening speech by
Dr Emile Frison,
Director of the International
Network for the Improvement
of Banana and Plantain (INIBAP)
On behalf of the International Plant Genetic Resources Institute (IPGRI) and more particularly
on behalf of INIBAP, it is my privilege to welcome you to this meeting.
I will not start by underlining the strategic importance of banana and plantain for
food security since it is the subject of the Symposium itself.
This Symposium is indeed a historic event as it is the first international gathering
dedicated exclusively to the socio-economic aspects of banana and plantain production.
During the initial discussions among the co-organisers of the Symposium more than
two years ago, we tried to identify what kind of studies had already been carried out in
this area and we were stunned to discover that extremely few studies were in fact
available.
In preparation for this meeting, we therefore encouraged as many partners as possible
to embark on such studies. This in itself was a challenge since few socio-economists
were willing or available to do this.
This symposium is therefore an opportunity to provide a first global overview of what
banana and plantain really means for worldwide food security. It will also provide a basis
for further studies which will be necessary to elaborate the picture we shall be sketching
out during the next few days.
On behalf of INIBAP, I would like to thank our partners with whom we have co-organised
the meeting. First of all the Centre de recherches régionales sur bananiers et
plantains (CRBP), who took the initiative to hold the meeting and who also organised
the local arrangements, and the Centre de coopération internationale en recherche
agronomique pour le développement (CIRAD), who played a key role in ensuring the
scientific quality of the meeting. Appreciation and thanks to the Technical Centre for
Agricultural and Rural Co-operation (CTA) who co-sponsored this Symposium and also to
the European Union for its significant funding as well as to the Food and Agriculture
Organization of United Nations (FAO) for its co-operation and input. Finally, I would like
to express my gratitude to the Government of Cameroon for hosting this Symposium.
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