Bananas and Food Security - Bioversity International

698 Les productions bananières / Bananas and food security – Session 4
constraints are often compounded by the use of infested planting material. Farmerparticipatory
trials are on going at three villages in Ghana to develop and test techniques
for the production and rapid multiplication of clean planting material. Suckers are
disinfected by paring or hot water treatment and multiplied using a “split-corm”
technique, followed by germination and growth in nursery beds. A study was undertaken
at the three villages, using structured questionnaire interviews, to evaluate farmers’
perceptions of the methods being developed and to determine the resources, education
and incentives that are needed to encourage widespread utilisation of the technology.
Results indicated that farmers are aware of the methods available and have seen that
they can result in improvements in plantain production with respect to yield and
plantation life. Paring of suckers, which is a simple, low cost technique, was particularly
popular and has been adopted by at least 40% of the plantain farmers in each of the
villages studied. Nursery production and hot water treatment were also considered to be
practices worthy of adoption, particularly in two of the villages. These findings represent
progress since a participatory rural appraisal conducted in 1993, when farmers were
unaware that infested planting material was the main cause of pest attack on plantain
and planting material, treatment was rarely undertaken.
Introduction
The production of plantain, a preferred staple food in Ghana, is constrained by a pest
and disease complex including nematodes, banana weevil and black Sigatoka (Schill et
al. 1996). The effects of these biotic constraints are often compounded by the use of
infested planting material, low soil fertility, poor management practices and short
fallows (Karikari 1970). Moreover, a participatory rural appraisal conducted throughout
the plantain production zone of Ghana indicated that farmers were usually unaware that
the use of clean, pest-free planting material could improve plantain production (Schill et
al. 1997).
In order to improve plantain yields and to sustain plantation life, farmer-participatory
trials are ongoing in which techniques for rapid multiplication of clean planting
material in village nurseries, followed by the use of improved cropping practices are
developed and tested. Planting material is multiplied by splitting suckers into a number
of sections (“split-corm” technique) before germination in a suitable medium such as
sawdust and transfer to a nursery field. Suckers are treated before transplanting from
the nursery to the farmer’s field, to eliminate nematodes and weevils using techniques
such as paring (removal of roots and outer corm layers to a depth of 0.3 cm) or hot water
treatment (55 o C, 20 min) (Colbran 1967, Seshu-Reddy et al. 1991). Results indicate, for
example, that hot water treatment of planting materials, together with regular weeding
and optimum plant spacing, can lead to an increase of over 50% in the number of
bunches harvested from the first crop and that production continues for at least three
years (Mensah-Bonsu et al., these proceedings).
A preliminary analysis of farmers’ reactions to the techniques being developed
indicated that farmers were aware of the advantages but were also concerned about