Skip to main content

Advertisement

SpringerLink
Log in

Banana Production Systems: Identification of Alternative Systems for More Sustainable Production

  • Report
  • Published:
AMBIO Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Large-scale, monoculture production systems dependent on synthetic fertilizers and pesticides, increase yields, but are costly and have deleterious impacts on human health and the environment. This research investigates variations in banana production practices in Costa Rica, to identify alternative systems that combine high productivity and profitability, with reduced reliance on agrochemicals. Farm workers were observed during daily production activities; 39 banana producers and 8 extension workers/researchers were interviewed; and a review of field experiments conducted by the National Banana Corporation between 1997 and 2002 was made. Correspondence analysis showed that there is no structured variation in large-scale banana producers’ practices, but two other banana production systems were identified: a small-scale organic system and a small-scale conventional coffee–banana intercropped system. Field-scale research may reveal ways that these practices can be scaled up to achieve a productive and profitable system producing high-quality export bananas with fewer or no pesticides.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Fig. 1
Fig. 2
Fig. 3

References

  • Andow, D.A., and K. Hidaka. 1989. Experimental natural history of sustainable agriculture: syndromes of production. Agriculture, Ecosystems & Environment 27: 447–462.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Borlaug, N.E. 1958. The impact of agricultural research on Mexican Wheat Production. Transactions of the New York Academy of Science 20: 278–295.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Castillo, L.E., E. Martinez, C. Ruepert, C. Savage, M. Gilek, M. Pinnock, and E. Solis. 2006. Water quality and macroinvertebrate community response following pesticide applications in a banana plantation, Limon, Costa Rica. Science of the Total Environment 367: 418–432.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Chelinho, S., I. Lopes, T. Natalda-Luz, X. Domene, M.E. Nunes, E.L.G. Espindola, R. Ribeiro, and J.P. Sousa. 2012. Integrated ecological risk assessment of pesticides in tropical ecosystems: A case study with carbofuran in Brazil. Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry 31: 437–445.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Churchill, A.C.L. 2011. Mycosphaerella fijiensis, the Black leaf streak pathogen of banana: progress towards understanding pathogen biology and detection, disease development, and the challenges of control. Molecular Plant Pathology 12: 307–328.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Corbana. 1997–2002. Annual review. San Jose: Corporación Bananera Nacional (in Spanish).

  • Corbana. 2005. Costa Rica: Banana export statistics 2004. San Jose: Corporación Bananera Nacional, 58 pp (in Spanish).

  • Corbana. 2009. Origins of the banana industry in Costa Rica. www.corbana.co.cr. Accessed 28 Jan 2009 (in Spanish).

  • Ekström, G., and B. Ekbom. 2011. Pest control in agro-ecosystems: an ecological approach. Critical Reviews in Plant Sciences 30: 74–94.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Escobar, G., and J. Berdegué, eds. 1990. Classification of agricultural production systems. Santiago: RIMISP (in Spanish).

  • Ewert, F., M.K. van Ittersum, T. Heckelei, O. Therond, I. Bezlepkina, and E. Andersen. 2011. Scale changes and model linking methods for integrated assessment of agri-environmental systems. Agriculture, Ecosystems & Environment 142: 6–17.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • FAO. 2002. Ten years of IPM training in Asia—from farmer field school to community IPM. Rome: FAO.

    Google Scholar 

  • FAOSTAT. 2004. FAOSTAT website. http://faostat.fao.org/. Accessed 2 June 2011.

  • FAOSTAT. 2011. FAOSTAT website. http://faostat.fao.org/. Accessed 15 Jan 2012.

  • Fuhrer, J. 2003. Agroecosystem responses to combinations of elevated CO2, ozone, and global climate change. Agriculture, Ecosystems & Environment 97: 1–20.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Garrett, H.E., and R.L. McGraw. 2000. Alley cropping practices. In North American agroforestry: an integrated science and practice, ed. H.E. Garrett, W.J. Rietveld, and R.F. Fisher, 149–188. Madison: ASA.

    Google Scholar 

  • Garrity, D.P. 2004. Agroforestry and the achievement of the millennium development goals. Agroforestry System 61: 5–17.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Geissen, V., F.Q. Ramos, P. de J. Bastidas-Bastidas, G. Díaz-González, R. Bello-Mendoza, E. Huerta-Lwanga, and L.E. Ruiz-Suárez. 2010. Soil and water pollution in a banana production region in tropical Mexico. Bulletin of Environmental Contamination and Toxicology 85: 407–413.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Gianfreda, L., and M.A. Rao. 2011. The influence of pesticides on soil enzymes. Soil Enzymology 22: 293–312.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Gunderson, L.H. 2000. Ecological resilience—in theory and application. Annual Review of Ecological Systems 31: 425–439.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hamblin, A. 1992. How do we know when agricultural systems are sustainable? In Environmental indicators for sustainable agriculture, report on a national workshop, November 28–29, 1991, ed. A. Hamblin. Canberra, Australia: Bureau of Rural Resources, Land and Water Resource Research and Development Corporation.

  • Hammer, Ø., D.A.T Harper, and P.D. Ryan. 2009. PAST—palaeontological statistics, ver. 1.90. http://folk.uio.no/ohammer/past/. Accessed March 2011.

  • Henao, S., and P. Arbelaez. 2002. Epidemiological situation of acute pesticide poisoning in the Central American Isthmus, 1992–2000. Epidemiological Bulletin 23: 5–9.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hernández, C., S.G. Witter, C.A.S. Hall, and C. Fridgen. 2000. The Costa Rican banana industry. In Quantifying sustainable development: The future of tropical economies, ed. C.A.S. Hall, 761 pp. San Diego: Academic Press.

  • Hernandez, C.E., and S.G. Witter. 1996. Evaluating and managing the environmental impact of banana production in Costa Rica: A systems approach. AMBIO 25: 171–178.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hussain, S., T. Siddique, M. Saleem, M. Arshad, and A. Khalid. 2009. Chapter 5: Impact of pesticides on soil microbial diversity, enzymes, and biochemical reactions. Advances in Agronomy 102: 159–200.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Jaizme-Vega, M.C. 1998. Application of arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi in micropropagated banana. In Organic/Environmentally Friendly Banana Production. Proceedings of a Workshop Held at EARTH, Guacimo, Costa Rica, 27–29 July 1998, eds. F.E. Rosales, S.C. Tripon, J. Cerna, 250 pp. France: INIBAP.

  • Jones, P.G., and P.K. Thornton. 2003. The potential impacts of climate change on maize production in Africa and Latin America in 2055. Global Environmental Change 13: 51–59.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kema, G.H.J. 2006. The pesticide reduction plan for banana. In XVII Annual International Reunion ACORBAT, eds. E. Soprano, F.A. Tcacenco, L.A. Lichtemberg, M.C. Silva, pp. 3–4. Joinville, Santa Catarina: Bananicultura: um negócio sustentável ACORBAT.

  • Kesavachandran, C.N., M. Fareed, M.K. Pathak, V. Bihari, N. Mathur, and A.K. Srivastava. 2009. Adverse health effects of pesticides in agrarian populations of developing countries. Reviews of Environmental Contamination and Toxicology 200: 33–52.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Köbrich, C., T. Rehman, and M. Khan. 2003. Typification of farming systems for constructing representative farm models: Two illustrations of the application of multi-variate analyses in Chile and Pakistan. Agricultural Systems 76: 141–157.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lin, B.L. 2011. Resilience in agriculture through crop diversification: Adaptive management for environmental change. BioScience 61: 183–193.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • MacRae, R.J., S.B. Hill, G.R. Mehuys, and J. Henning. 1990. Farm-scale agronomic and economic conversion from conventional to sustainable agriculture. Advanced Agronomy 43: 155–198.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Matson, P.A., W.J. Parton, A.G. Power, and M.J. Swift. 1997. Agricultural intensification and ecosystem properties. Science 277: 504–509.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Nair, P.K.R., B.M. Kumar, and V.D. Nair. 2009. Agroforestry as a strategy for carbon sequestration. Journal of Plant Nutrition Soil Science 172: 10–23.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Pagiola, S. 2008. Payments for environmental services in Costa Rica. Ecological Economics 65: 712–724.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Picasso, V.D., E.C. Brummer, M. Liebman, P.M. Dixon, and B.J. Wilsey. 2008. Crop species diversity affects productivity and weed suppression in perennial polycultures under two management strategies. Crop Science 48: 331–342.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Pinochet, J. 1986. A note on nematode control practices on bananas in Central America. Nematropica 16: 197–203.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ramírez, F., E. Chaverri, E. de la Cruz, C. Wesseling, L. Castillo, and V. Bravo. 2009. Importation of pesticides in Costa Rica: Period 1977–2006. Heredia, Costa Rica: IRET, Universidad Nacional (in Spanish).

  • Sarah, J.L. 1998. Cultural practices as a way of nematode control in banana. In Organic/Environmentally Friendly Banana Production. Proceedings of a Workshop Held at EARTH, Guacimo, Costa Rica, 27–29 July 1998, eds. F.E. Rosales, S.C. Tripon, J. Cerna, 250 pp. France: INIBAP.

  • Smith, R., K. Gross, and G. Robertson. 2008. Effects of crop diversity on agroecosystem function: Crop yield response. Ecosystems 11: 355–366.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Smukler, S.M., L.E. Jackson, L. Murphree, R. Yokota, S.T. Koike, and R.F. Smith. 2008. Transition to large-scale organic vegetable production in the Salina Valley, California. Agriculture, Ecosystems & Environment 126: 168–188.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Styger, E., G. Aboubacrine, M.A. Attaher, and N. Uphoff. 2011. The system of rice intensification as a sustainable agricultural innovation: Introducing, adapting and scaling up a system of rice intensification practices in the Timbuktu region of Mali. International Journal of Agricultural Sustainability 9: 67–75.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Tilman, D., P.B. Reich, and J.M.H. Knops. 2006. Biodiversity and ecosystem stability in a decade-long grassland experiment. Nature 441: 629–632.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Tixier, P., C. Lavigne, S. Alvarez, A. Gauquier, M. Blanchard, A. Ripoche, and R. Achard. 2011. Model evaluation of cover crops, application to eleven species for banana cropping systems. European Journal of Agronomy 34: 53–61.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Tscharntke, T., Y. Clough, S.A. Bhagwat, D. Buchori, H. Faust, D. Hertel, D. Hölscher, J. Juhrbandt, et al. 2011. Multifunctional shade-tree management in tropical agroforestry landscapes—a review. Journal of Applied Ecology 48: 619–629.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Vandermeer, J. 1989. The ecology of intercropping, 237. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Wesseling, C., B.W. de Joode, M. Keifer, L. London, D. Mergler, and L. Stallones. 2010. Symptoms of psychological distress and suicidal ideation among banana workers with a history of poisoning by organophosphate or n-methyl carbamate pesticides. Occupational and Environmental Medicine 67: 778–784.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Williams-Guillén, K., I. Perfecto, and J. Vandermeer. 2008. Bats limit insects in a tropical agroforestry system. Science 320: 70.

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgments

I would like to thank Jose Sauma at Corbana, Adriana Rodriguez at Earth University, Miguel Rivera at ACAPRO, Victor Solano and Roberto Chacon at the Ministry of Agriculture, Viria Bravo at IRET, Iriana Martinez, and Romano Orlich and all of the other banana producers who took the time to answer my extensive interview questions.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Environmental and Earth System Science, Spatial Analysis Center, Stanford University, 473 Via Ortega Y2E2 Building, Room 366, Stanford, CA, 94305-4216, USA

    Angelina Sanderson Bellamy

Authors
  1. Angelina Sanderson Bellamy
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Angelina Sanderson Bellamy.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Bellamy, A.S. Banana Production Systems: Identification of Alternative Systems for More Sustainable Production. AMBIO 42, 334–343 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13280-012-0341-y

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Revised:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s13280-012-0341-y

Keywords

Search

Navigation