THE FRENCH POTENTIAL FOR DEVELOPING COUNTRIES

As this Symposium is held by the Commission for Tropical and Subtropical Horticulture of I.S.H.S., a general outline of French research, training and development organizations will be given as far as tropical countries are concerned and with an emphasis on horticultural crops.
Fruit crops will be cited as an example of the development activity and other commodities may follow an organizational pattern somewhat different in detail.

1. In the French language, "horticulture" is commonly regarded as "gardening", mostly ornamental plant cultivation.
   That is the reason why some administrative officers replied to Dr.
   Carl Juergensen in response to his request for information to be used in his paper on Postgraduate Training for Students from Developing Countries (pp. 15–20 Acta Horticulturae 204, 1987) that France had no specific structures for this type of training.
   But France has, in fact, developed unique adaptive features for filling most of the gaps referred to since these subjects are considered to be "agricultural" without particular attention being given to horticulture. At the Congress symposium on Postgraduate Training for Development, the author gave oral information concerning the possibilities for students from developing countries being trained in France; this is also explained in this paper under the paragraphs on CIRAD and CNEARC.

2. Some tropical fruits are important staple foods in certain regions.
   The annual production of cooking bananas (plantains and others) is estimated between 20 and 30,000,000 metric tonnes and they replace cereals or tubers in the basic starchy diet of several ethnic groups.
   In other specific cases, an important contribution to the basic diet is seasonally provided by durian (Durio zibethinus) in South-East Asia, by safou, also known as attanga (Pachylobus edulis) in Central-West Africa.
   Sweet bananas and avocado should also not be neglected since they provide valuable vitamins and minerals.

3. Meeting the food demands of a given country does not consist solely in achieving nutritional self-sufficiency.
   No nation can raise its living standards independently of the trade currents between members of the world community.
   Thus the exchange value of horticultural export crops such as cocoa, coffee, tea, sweet bananas, pineapples, citrus and spices must be seriously considered.
   This holds true especially for countries which have limited mineral or other natural resources.
   Sufficient diversity and intrinsic value of crop production must be insured in order that these countries do not become hostages of the economic situation.

The Role of Horticulture in Meeting the Food Demands of AD 2000, XXII IHC

P. Martin-Prével

https://doi.org/10.17660/ActaHortic.1987.211.6