Bananas and Food Security - Bioversity International

Amérique Latine - Caraïbes / Latin America - Caribbean : A. Gavilan et al.
Climate
The region has a tropical climate. Temperatures vary between 26 and 33°C with a
maximum of 42°C in the plains. In the highlands the temperature is lower. The
difference in temperature between the coldest month and the hottest is 5°C (Marin
Castillo 1988).
There is a dry season and a rainy season. The rainy season begins in May and ends in
October. The dry season starts in November and ends in April. From July till August
there is a drier period, which is known as canicula. This period is 10-50 days long, depending
on the region (Marin Castillo 1988).
Soils
The soils in the region were classified as entisols, vertisols, inceptisols, mollisols and
alfisols (Marin Castillo 1988, Soil Taxonomy USDA).
The visited farmers
The visited areas are suited to the production of export bananas (MAG 1996). They are
all situated in the plains of the Pacific region called by Bastiaensen (1991) the
“capitalist agro-export zone” which is strongly orientated to the production of cash
crops.
We visited only farmers with bananas and plantains. Their farms were mostly smalland
medium-sized (Table 1), producing mainly maize (Bastiaensen 1992). Other important
crops are sorghum, sesame, cassava, rice and, of less importance, sugarcane, soya
and cotton. Beans are important in the highlands. Cash crops are produced by the large
farmers.
Table 1. Classification of visited farmers.
Class Definition (ha) Total
Class 1 0- 3.5 32
Class 2 3.5 - 7 35
Class 3 7 - 14 14
Class 4 14 - 35 15
Class 5 more than 35 2
Total 98
Importance of bananas and plantains
To determine the importance of bananas and plantains we calculated three variables:
• the relative importance of the planting of bananas and plantains in the whole farm;
• the relative importance of bananas and plantains to the agricultural incomes of the
farmers;
759