Bananas and Food Security - Bioversity International

778 Les productions bananières / Bananas and food security – Session 4
Agroforestry
Most farmers in India combine agricultural crops with trees and livestock in their
farming practices (Tejwani 1994). However, agroforestry research and development work
is relatively recent. Some of the requirements for a species to be chosen for agroforestry
as pointed out by Avery et al. (1991) are satisfied by bananas. In agroforestry, bananas
are not given the place they deserve. The adaptation of some of the varieties for shaded
conditions, ratooning ability, tolerance to some of the abiotic and biotic stresses and
availability of numerous varieties are some of the factors making bananas suitable as an
important component in agroforestry systems. A few of the prevailing cropping/farming
systems involving bananas could well be brought under the preview of agroforestry as
defined and classified by Nair (1989).
In peninsular India in general and Kerala in particular, banana is being grown as an
efficient intercrop with a number of perennial crops including tree species which
together form a sort of agroforestry system. The ability of banana to support better
establishment of a number of important perennial crops is an added merit to justify its
inclusion as an agroforestry component. Banana is one of the common crops in the
homesteads and it combines well with many crops, forming various sorts of crop mixture.
Homesteads evolved through centuries in Kerala where the per capita availability of land
is very little. They can be regarded as an efficient agroforestry system involving
crops/plants, livestock, birds and fish, besides the human component. Home gardens in
southern India are described as an agro-silvo-pastoral practice by Tijwani (1994).
Sathees Babu et al. (1992) reported 60 species in a home garden from south Kerala in
which banana is one among the major components. It is evident that bananas can have a
very prominent role in agroforestry. Systematic serious work is to be initiated to assess
the role of banana and plantain in agroforestry so that they are better utilised not only in
the region, but also at the international level.
Peninsular India is thus a relatively small geographical area with a number of
specialised cropping and farming systems involving banana and plantain, evolved and
perfected through the ages under a variety of situations and conditions. Detailed
investigations on these systems will not only benefit the people of this region but could
also be very useful in other banana growing regions of the world. These principles and
practices in the local systems which are better than the existing ones in other regions
could be adopted as far as possible, with or without modification.
References
Aravindakshan M. 1978. Status papers: Banana. Pp. 31-35 in Agricultural Research in Kerala.
Kerala Agr. University, Thrissur, India.
Aravindakshan M. & K. Pushkaran. 1996. Banana Compendium. Kerala Agr. University, Thrissur,
India. 160 pp.
Avery M.E., M.G. Cannel & K.O. Chin. 1991. Biophysical Research for Asian Agroforestry. Winrock
International, USA. 292 pp.