Bananas and Food Security - Bioversity International

44 Les productions bananières / Bananas and food security – Session 1
Table 2. (continued).
Scenarios Three-year Growth Projection
average rate (%) (t)
1993/95 1995- 2001- 2000 2005
2000 2005
Scenario B7 – 3.0% increase of
GDP per capita per year
Production available for
consumption (a) 3 736 313 2.32 2.32 4 287 523 4 808 494
Apparent consumption (b) 3 684 664 3.08 2.91 4 420 919 5 048 928
Balance (a-b)
Source: Mascarenhas, 1997.
51 649 - - (133 397) (240 433)
1Note: Considering the following parameters: population growth rate (projected by the Brazilian Statistical
Agency - IBGE) of 1.2827%, per year for 1995-2000 period, and of 1.105 177% per year, for 2000-2005 period;
average income elasticity of banana demand in Brazil about 0.6, as calculated by FAO (1971) and CODE-
VASF (1989); Increasing of GD per capita ranging from 0 to 3%; 2.32% production increase rate per year for
all projections; reference year 1994, corresponding to 1993/1995 average period.
that the banana crop has a short cycle: in some cultivars bunches appear less than one
year from planting.
Thus, an increase in banana fruit price may be followed, after a certain period of
time, by an increase in supply which may eliminate or reduce the difference between
supply and demand, as pointed out by Mascarenhas (1997). Therefore the proposed
balance between supply and demand should be treated with caution.
Table 3 shows distribution of Brazilian banana production by state: banana is
evidently grown nationwide. In 1997 the most important states for banana production
were Bahia, Pará, São Paulo, Pernambuco and Santa Catarina. Although Bahia showed
the highest production in the country, about 60,000 bunches/year, the crop yield in that
state (1048 bunches/ha) was lower than the national average, which is 1118 bunches/ha.
Higher banana yields were observed in Maranhão, Paraná, Paraíba, Piauí, Pará, Mato
Grosso do Sul, Pernambuco, Santa Catarina and São Paulo.
Statistics for banana production in Brazil should be considered with care: data are
presented as bunches/ha instead of kg/ha. Two points must be considered here: there is
variation in bunch weight: and banana production in Brazil includes both banana and
plantain production. It is possible that if statistics were based on kg/ha, Santa Catarina
would show higher banana yields than the others because growers there use high
technology production systems and also good post harvest handling.
Table 4 shows the harvested area, production, average yield and percentage of
banana production by each region of Brazil in 1997. Clearly bananas are grown all over
the country, the north-east region being the major producer, followed by the south-east,
north, south and centre-west. The highest yield is obtained in the south followed by the
north-east, north, south-east and centre-west.
Studies carried out by Alves (1992) showed that the banana cultivar Prata is
responsible for 80, 75 and 55% of the banana-cultivated area in the north, north-east and