Bananas and Food Security - Bioversity International

490 Les productions bananières / Bananas and food security – Session 3
between different cooking banana cultivars, hence, prices in the market do not vary by
cultivar. Agbagba is the most common local plantain found in the market.
The results of analysis show that about 80% of the farmers sell at least 10% of their
cooking banana crop whereas about 20% produce only for household consumption
(Table 1). On the other hand, almost all the farmers (98%) did sell some part of their
plantain production. For those selling 10 to 50% of their output, the number of farmers
selling cooking banana is higher (60%) than the number selling plantain (30%); the
reverse is observed when above 50% of output is marketed. Then, 6% of farmers sell
between 90 and 100% of their cooking banana production against 16% for plantain. These
results indicate that plantain has, relative to cooking banana, a very high market status.
In the surveyed region, plantain is actually an important source of cash income (Nweke
1996).
On the average, 41% of cooking banana currently produced by farmers in southeast
Nigeria is sold against 66% of plantain (Table 2). The average proportion of cooking
banana sold in the study area after a decade of introduction is almost equal to that of
cassava (45%) in Nigeria after several centuries (Nweke 1996). This is an indication that
as time goes on, still more cooking banana will be sold.
Table 1. Percentage distribution of farmers by proportion (%) of cooking banana and
plantain sold.
Proportion sold (%) % of farmers selling
Cooking banana (N = 217) Plantain (N = 181)
0 19.8 2.2
10 14.3 1.1
20 5.5 2.2
30 5.1 3.3
40 1.4 5.0
50 12.9 16.6
60 11.1 8.8
70 12.9 18.8
80 10.6 26.0
90 5.5 13.3
100
N = number of observations.
0.9 2.8
Table 2. Average percentage of cooking banana and plantain planted for sale.
Crop Mean Maximum Minimum Standard Number of
Cooking
deviation observations
banana 41 100 0 3.1 217
Plantain 66 100 0 2.2 181