Bananas are the world’s favorite fruit, but banana producers across the tropics have had to resort to heavy pesticide use to stay ahead of diseases and pests that are becoming ever more resistant to the chemicals conventionally used to control them. In a world that is increasingly aware of threats to health and the environment, the irony is that environmentally benign alternatives for pest and disease control exist but are not being adopted.
Now a new initiative – the Pesticide Reduction Plan for Banana – intends to address both the new pest management options and the reasons why producers are not using these friendlier methods. Costa Rica, one of the leading banana producing countries, hosted a gathering of experts from 20 to 22 November, in Guapiles, heart of the country’s banana-producing region. Participants included both researchers and private sector stakeholders in the banana producing and trading business.
“Our aim is to reduce pesticide use by 50% within 10 years” said Gert Kema of Wageningen University and Research Centre. “We can do that by deploying technologies that already exist. Beyond that, we have new ideas in the pipeline that, with further research, will allow even more reductions.” A broad consensus emerged among the participants that the way ahead lies in people growing and consuming a wider diversity of bananas, instead of the narrow range of ‘Cavendish’ varieties currently traded worldwide, and using biologically-based methods to substitute for unsustainable chemical inputs.
The meeting, bringing together participants from 13 countries was hosted by the national banana corporation of Costa Rica (CORBANA) in the framework of a collaborative research project organized by Wageningen University in the Netherlands, Bioversity International, the Agricultural Research Centre for International Development (CIRAD) of France, the Brazilian Agricultural Research Corporation (EMBRAPA), the Catholic University of Leuven in Belgium, with support from the Common Fund for Commodities.