Bananas and Food Security - Bioversity International

Amérique Latine - Caraïbes / Latin America - Caribbean : A. Gavilan et al.
Bluggoe). The pest/disease resistance reply was linked to Silk. Some farmers had the
impression that Silk was resistant to Moko disease. Resistance to drought is related to
Bluggoe and Silk.
Techniques used by farmers in bananas
and plantains
The practice most commonly applied was cleaning the plantation (97%) and removal of
dead leaves (93%). In the dry season this was not done. The dead leaves protect the plant
against drought. Eighty percent of farmers said they practised desuckering, but the
question was often misunderstood: we found that for a number of farmers, desuckering
and collecting suckers to enlarge the plantation or to sell had the same meaning. Fiftyfour
percent of the farmers disinfect the sucker or the planting hole. They use an
insecticide, a fungicide, a combination of both, chlorine or lime. Fifty-one percent of the
farmers told us that they removed the male flower, or at least intended to.
Only 44% of the farmers interviewed grew other crops in association with bananas
and plantains. They unintentionally planted some trees in between or they mixed bananas
and plantains with maize in the year the plantation was established. All other crops
are generally produced in monoculture.
Twenty-three percent of the farmers peel the sucker. Being a labour intensive practice
some farmers do not do so even if they know of it.
We clearly have a bias in the results of the techniques used by farmers in bananas
and plantains. The collaborating extension services were involved in the selection of
the farmers to be visited. Most of the producers visited work with these organisations.
Some farmers used techniques or cultivated crops which are not traditional for the
region. Thirty percent of the farmers visited received training in banana and plantain
management from NGOs working in that region. Others had worked in a commercial
banana plantation and knew the recommended practices for management of bananas
and plantains.
In the case of recently established banana and plantain plantations we asked the farmer
about the techniques he intended to use. They stated their intentions, but these
might differ from future practice. In some cases we saw farmers starting to use a practice.
Others had not yet started, but assured us they would. As we visited the farmer only
once, we could not verify this and we decided to mark this intention as a positive answer.
Constraints
Problems in bananas and plantains
Moko disease was seen as the greatest problem (25%), then came the banana weevil
(Cosmopolites sordidus) in 14% of the replies. Only then came black Sigatoka (13%)
which is a problem in the region. All varieties are affected. Small and medium farmers
however do not perceive it as problem.
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