Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
optimum balance between growth (assimilation) and development (leaf emergence
rate). Temperatures below 13 °C, when plants are grown under field conditions in
the subtropics or during banana fruit transport, may cause underpeel discoloration
of fruit. Winter chill in leaves, which shows up as a progressive yellowing due to
chlorophyll destruction, can also be seen in the subtropics when night temperatures
fall to between 6 and 0 °C. Banana leaves die at 0 °C, although the plant may recover
from rhizome buds if the frost is of both short duration and low intensity.
After temperature, rainfall is the main determinant climatic factor for banana
cultivation. The banana has a high water demand, with 25 mm per week considered
as the minimum for satisfactory growth. In some parts of the humid tropics, water
requirements of bananas are supplied totally from rainfall, but in the dry tropics and
subtropics, supplementary irrigation is essential to produce bananas of commercial
quantity and quality.
Crop Management
The cultivation of bananas was historically initiated as plants or mats in backyard
gardens, either grown separately or associated with a range of other subsistence
crops. Bananas were mainly planted to satisfy family consumption, with any sur-
plus exchanged for other goods and services in nearby villages. Crop and animal
residues and ashes were the only source of fertilisers and maintenance was mini-
mal. Banana production progressively evolved towards a cultivation system where
bananas were grown in association with other crops, mostly at low plant density,
which acted to shade plants for shorter perennial crops or as a component of crop
rotation systems within the natural bush. Banana production became a monoculture
as soon as it became a more important source of income.
With the banana market increasing substantially in the twentieth century, pro-
ducers looked to improved cultural practices in order to increase yields. However,
throughout the 1990s the intensification of conventional banana cultivation not only
resulted in an increase in production but also provoked increasing soil degradation
problems and an increase in pests and diseases in many parts of the tropics. This has
led to important changes in cultural practices, which include protected cultivation,
to ensure sustainable profitable banana production.
The reader can find an updated description of the banana, as well as information
on banana cultural practices that includes soil preparation, establishment, planting
densities, choice of planting material, desuckering, fertilisation, irrigation and plant
protection measures in the text book
Bananas and Plantains
written by Robinson
and Galán Saúco (
2010
).
