Bananas and Food Security - Bioversity International

766 Les productions bananières / Bananas and food security – Session 4
Other perceived problems are Erwinia (6%) and nematodes (2%). It is possible that
in the cases where wind was seen as a problem, the problem was in fact nematodes. Farmers
do not know about nematodes, as they are not visible. In certain cases, the farmers
did not really know what their problem was. They show us affected plants and we identified
the problem.
Irrigation
All the big farmers (class 5) have an irrigation system. In class 4 only 25% of the farmers
have one, as do only a few farmers in the other classes. In our sample small farmers had
access to irrigation only when there was a river near their field.
Sensitivity to risks
The application of new techniques or the introduction of new varieties always implies a
risk for the farmer. This can be one of the reasons why farmers prefer not to experiment
with new techniques. Not all farmers dare risk economic losses if an experiment does not
have the expected results. Thus a farmer with more resources has a greater capacity to
experiment than a smaller one with fewer resources. We decided therefore to look for a
variable which we could use as an indicator of the risk sensitivity of the farmer. We will
present some results.
We define the concept of sensitivity to economic risk as the capacity to sustain losses.
The farmer with the greater capacity to do so is less sensitive to economic risk. We assume
that a farmer with more land has more resources and is less sensitive to risk. To test
the validity of this hypothesis we used the following variables:
• the possession of animals (especially cows);
• access to transport;
• the use of fertilisers and pesticides.
The possession of animals
Half of the farmers we interviewed possess cows, pigs and horses. The great majority also
own chickens. Farmers with more access to land have more animals. The farmers of
class 5 are the exception. They are specialised in agriculture or in cattle-raising. There is
however no linear correlation between the number of cows and the size of the farm.
Transport
Approximately half of the farmers we interviewed have access to transport (Table 8). For
half of this group, transport means a horse. This means that many farmers do not
consider a horse as good transport. Fifteen percent have a tractor, 10% oxen and only 5%
Table 8. Possession of transport (%).
Have access to transport class 1 class 2 class 3 class 4 class 5 all classes
yes 21.9 48.6 57.1 73.3 100.0 46.0
no 78.1 51.4 42.9 26.7 0.0 54.0