Producers and researchers are working to make banana production in the West Indies sustainable

Commitments on the part of producers

The banana supply chain in the West Indies has for several years been committed to a plan to develop sustainable banana production, centring on controlling banana Sigatoka diseases, cutting chemical pesticide use by an extra 50% between 2006 and 2013, and encouraging cropping practices that respect both human health and the environment.

This major concern has already prompted producers to reduce their use of pesticides quite considerably. The results speak for themselves: over a decade, they have reduced applications by almost 70%, and are continuing their efforts in this respect.
Sigatoka disease control is a major worry for the banana supply chain and for people in the West Indies, particularly since the arrival of black Sigatoka in the French West Indies, which is now threatening the sector.

The banana supply chain has joined forces with environmental and agricultural research centres (CEMAGREF, CIRAD and INRA) to come up with concrete answers to these questions. The various partners met on 21 June in Neufchâteau, Capesterre, in Guadeloupe, to present the latest developments for sustainable agriculture in the islands. Scientists were to present the first results and the prospects offered by their work on disease control to Mr Victorin Lurel, Leader of the Guadeloupe Regional Council, and Mr Jacques Gillot, Leader of the Departmental Council, along with Messrs Roger Genet, CEMAGREF Director General, Gérard Matheron, CIRAD President Managing Director, and Eric de Lucy, UGPBAN President.

OPTIBAN, to improve aerial treatments and develop land-based alternatives

At the request of the Ministry of Agriculture's Direction Générale de l'Alimentation and of the UGPBAN, CEMAGREF launched a study in March 2008, called OptiBan.
The study was intended to optimize aerial treatments and come up with alternative land-based treatments that respect the environment and growers' health.

Researchers compiled a detailed map of planted areas and protected areas (buildings, watercourses) which, combined with a GPS and a control system that cuts out automatic sprayers when they enter a banned area, ensures that only authorized areas are treated by air. The traceability of treatment operations is ensured by an information system, Banatrace, which is intended to oversee Sigatoka control on a department scale and make compulsory declarations easier.

The scientists involved then studies the various land-based treatment methods, assessed their impacts and came up with an innovative land-based prototype. The device is currently being tested, and consists of a set of mini-spray guns patented by CEMAGREF and the UGPBAN, mounted on a mast whose height can be adjusted. The system has been installed experimentally on a carrier that can operate between the rows of banana plants, and theoretically on slopes of up to 45%. Producers were convinced by the system, and have now decided to work with CEMAGREF to develop a new carrier tailored to the conditions in the West Indies: steep slopes, heavy soils, heavy rainfall, etc.

Two innovation platforms to develop sustainable cropping methods

The banana supply chain, through IT2 (Institut Technique Tropical) and CIRAD , has set up two collaborative platforms.
- The first, based in Guadeloupe, is to create and breed new varieties resistant to Sigatoka diseases. The meeting on 21 June was intended to take stock of the latest varieties due to be tested shortly by several producers. New non-hybrid (non-GM) banana varieties resistant to black Sigatoka, developed by CIRAD's genetic improvement programme, are currently being assessed and should, in the medium to long term, remove the need for any banana leaf treatments, notably aerial.

- The second, in Martinique, is working to understand the ecological processes at play and take them into account in crop management sequences, to reduce the need for chemical pesticides: planting healthy plants obtained by in vitro culture, crop rotation, trapping weevils, rational control methods, use of cover plants, etc. Such technical innovations and new cropping practices have made it possible to cut pesticide use by 50% since 2006, thus meeting the target set by the sustainable banana plan. The solutions currently being assessed and transferred to producers, which include the development of multi-species systems including cover plants, were to be presented.

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CEMAGREF is a French environmental science and technology research organization. It is a public establishment reporting to the Ministries of Research and of Agriculture, and conducts environmental research on a territory scale. It is action-oriented, and centres on three major societal challenges: sustainable management of watercourses and territories, natural risks, and environmental quality. CEMAGREF has an annual budget of 115 million euros, of which 31% are drawn from contractual resources, and a staff of 1600, including 950 scientists, split between nine centres in France and 25 research units. It is fully integrated into the French and European research system, and works in support of public policy and in partnership with industrialists (130 research contracts). It is involved in some ten competitiveness clusters.
In 2006 and 2011, CEMAGREF was awarded the Carnot label for its activities as a whole.
www.cemagref.fr

CIRAD is a French agricultural research centre working in the intertropical zone on international agricultural and development issues.

It works with the whole range of southern countries to generate and disseminate new knowledge in support of agricultural development. It works in close contact with people and the land, on complex, ever-changing issues, notably food security, ecological intensification, emerging diseases, and the future of farming systems in southern countries.
CIRAD is a targeted research organization chose multidisciplinary scientific programme is governed by development requirements, from field to laboratory, and from local to global. In this way, it contributes to the debates on the main global agricultural issues.
CIRAD's research centres on six shared priority lines of research implemented through numerous research platforms worldwide, backed up by twelve regional offices.
In the French overseas regions, it has research centres, experimental plots and advanced technology platforms, from which almost 400 staff members work to support local communities and professionals in local agricultural and agrifood sectors.
www.cirad.fr

The UGPBAN is a union of banana planters' groups in Guadeloupe and Martinique.
The profession centres on three producer groups: Les Producteurs de Guadeloupe (LPG) in Guadeloupe and Banamart and Banalliance in Martinique.
The UGPBAN, which is based at Rungis, near Paris, is an umbrella organization for these three groups whose main task is to market 100% of the bananas produced in the French West Indies on the European market.
www.bananeguadeloupemartinique.com

The Institut Technique Tropical (IT²) was set up by the banana supply chain in 2008 to work with research centres to develop new cropping methods even more respectful of people and the environment. IT² recently opened up to diversification crops in the West Indies (pineapple, market garden crops, melon, yam, etc), to come up with technical solutions for the producers concerned, to ensure greater self-sufficiency in the islands.
www.bananedurable.com

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