Bananas and Food Security - Bioversity International

704 Les productions bananières / Bananas and food security – Session 4
Table 1. Farmer preferences for adoption of integrated pest management strategies
at three villages in Ghana.
Farmers were asked what assistance they deemed necessary to facilitate the
adoption of the techniques developed with respect to resources and education. In
addition to requests for specific tools, farmers frequently stated credit facilities, treated
suckers, hot-water tanks and land, as resources required. In general, farmers believed
that provision of these resources should come from IITA, the government, or nongovernmental
organisations. With respect to education, farmers in all of the villages were
impressed with the training methods used to date (farmer-participatory trials, farmer
training days and technical assistance in collaboration with MoFA and IITA) and
suggested that this should be continued. In Nyinahin, the farmers said that they needed
one to two years of contact with trainers. Some indicated that after this period, local
farmers should be trained to take over, while others felt the need for institutional
support. In Pramkese, farmers suggested training periods of between one week and two
years, while in Gyedu, it was considered that training should be continuous.
Conclusions
% farmers with preferences for different management strategies
Strategy Nyinahin Pramkese Gyedu
Paring 76.0 84.6 95.5
Hot water treatment 36.0 3.8 38.6
Nursery production 52.0 15.8 54.5
One method 40.0 92.3 47.7
Two methods 32.0 7.7 15.9
Three methods 20.0 0.0 36.4
Undecided 8.0 0.0 0.0
A questionnaire conducted at three villages in Ghana indicated that farmers are aware
of methods available for the production and rapid multiplication of clean planting material
and understand that use of the techniques 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 already 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 by
farmers in Nyinahin and Gyedu. These findings represent progress since 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.
While the introduction of new management practices has been successful in the
three villages studied, the mechanism needed for widespread technology transfer
requires further consideration. It was clear from discussions with farmers that they are