Articles
INCREASING THE PRO-POOR IMPACT OF BANANA CROP PROTECTION STRATEGIES: KNOWING OUR CLIENTS, INVOLVING NEW PLAYERS AND LINKING MORE EFFECTIVELY
Article number
828_37
Pages
361 – 374
Language
English
Abstract
Pests and diseases have always been present in small-holder banana fields.
In recent decades, black leaf streak, banana bunchy top, Xanthomonas wilt and Fusarium wilt have invaded new areas.
This paper addresses ways in which solutions offered by research-and-development organisations to farm communities facing income loss and food insecurity from pests and diseases can be improved.
Conventionally, breeders have focused on developing disease-resistant, high-yielding hybrids.
Throughout the tropics, the suitability of these hybrids for local needs has often been limited.
Experience from other crops and rural development projects offers guidelines for making banana crop protection more pro-poor. Improving the match between emerging technologies and poor clients needs a clearer understanding of both the benefits and requirements of technologies and the interests and resources of clients.
Tools to improve the match include baseline studies to characterise poor clients of technology, farmers group training to strengthen pest management and business skills, and the study of how new technologies spread.
Additional actors in the impact pathway play key roles: training services on participatory methods for researchers and extensionists, private-sector providers of inputs, and business-training and marketing services to growers associations.
An innovation system perspective may be useful in identifying weak links for a more effective clean seed system or strengthening market chains to increase farmer return on crop protection practices.
In recent decades, black leaf streak, banana bunchy top, Xanthomonas wilt and Fusarium wilt have invaded new areas.
This paper addresses ways in which solutions offered by research-and-development organisations to farm communities facing income loss and food insecurity from pests and diseases can be improved.
Conventionally, breeders have focused on developing disease-resistant, high-yielding hybrids.
Throughout the tropics, the suitability of these hybrids for local needs has often been limited.
Experience from other crops and rural development projects offers guidelines for making banana crop protection more pro-poor. Improving the match between emerging technologies and poor clients needs a clearer understanding of both the benefits and requirements of technologies and the interests and resources of clients.
Tools to improve the match include baseline studies to characterise poor clients of technology, farmers group training to strengthen pest management and business skills, and the study of how new technologies spread.
Additional actors in the impact pathway play key roles: training services on participatory methods for researchers and extensionists, private-sector providers of inputs, and business-training and marketing services to growers associations.
An innovation system perspective may be useful in identifying weak links for a more effective clean seed system or strengthening market chains to increase farmer return on crop protection practices.
Authors
C. Staver
Keywords
innovation systems, integrated pest management, Musa, plantain, technology transfer
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