Bananas and Food Security - Bioversity International

Introduction : B. Delvaux
considerable diversity characterises the banana cropping systems. According to
Robinson (1995), such diversity depends on three main parameters:
• the climate conditions (subtropical, tropical),
• the use of the production (either commercial for export and/or local market, or subsistence),
• the type of crop (banana or plantain). Because bananas are very high demanding
crops, management practices are often adapted according to the soil type (Delvaux
1995, Davies 1995). The diversity of cropping systems and varieties may have hindered
the development of research into the crop. In this respect, Price (1995a) recently
stressed on the need to develop an integrated approach in understanding banana
cropping systems because former “division and duplication along political lines, a
demarcation between export and smallholder production, and commercial and
professional rivalries have all contributed to a fragmented and erratic approach”.
The present paper is aimed at contributing to the promotion of an integrated
approach in view of a better understanding and hence management of banana cropping
systems. In this respect, this paper could be a modest contribution in providing a few
answers to the following important questions: Why do we need to better understand
banana-cropping systems? How do we analyse and characterise them? How far do we
understand these systems? How is our understanding being used to improve their crop
production in a sustainable way? What are the research needs to improve their
sustainability?
Why do we need to better understand
banana cropping systems?
Banana and plantain are one of the world major food crops ranking 4 th in terms of gross
value of production as well as in terms of export earnings for developing countries.
Millions of families in tropical countries depend for their nutrition and livelihood on the
production, trade and consumption of this crop. In 1998, about 120 countries produced
approximately 88 millions tons of bananas and plantains (FAO 1999). Approximately 90%
of this production is consumed locally as a staple food. Bananas are cultivated in tropical
as well as subtropical and Mediterranean areas under various types of cropping systems
generating crop yields ranging roughly between 5 and 70 t/ha per year. On a world scale,
the diversity of banana cropping systems is huge as it encompasses pure banana stand
monoculture and mixed cropping systems involving bananas, fruit and tree crops, food
crops such as cereals and tubers. In such mixed cropping, banana may not to the main
crop. Such systems can respond adequately to the definition of Norman et al. (1995)
stating that “food crop systems are communities of plants, which are managed to obtain
food, profit satisfaction or, most commonly, a combination of these goals. These systems
are purposeful in that farmers (who are part of the system) can set goals and changes
even when their atmospheric, soil, technical, economic and social environment may not
be changing”. For the tropics Norman et al. (1995) give five groups of systems: shifting
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