Page 58 - Ecuador's Banana Sector under Climate Change

ecuador’s banana sector under climate change: an economic and biophysical assessment to promote a sustainable and climate-compatible strategy
3. Improve productivity through a programme that disseminates improved techniques, fertilization programmes and better management of pest control. This includes approved control methods for organic farming.
Most of these support measures require producers to form associations to receive technical assistance and management capacity-building support. This is not a significant challenge, since the marketing of bananas often requires producers to organize and work in groups, especially when banana certification is required. Such measures, however, require sufficient capacity in applied research, technology adaptation and extension. An evaluation
of the country’s current capacity in research, technology development and extension is required to determine critical needs, identify gaps and establish an appropriate action programme.
4. Increase demand opportunities to better control supply/demand balances, and, hence, stabilize prices. This includes maintaining current market access to the EU and expanding exports to emerging markets with rising middle-class consumers. Another element of this strategy is to diversify the banana value chain by encouraging other banana uses (e.g. banana flour) or encouraging domestic consumption (institutional buyers, such as schools, hospitals and the military).
If implemented in an integrated way, these four measures should contribute to
(i) an improvement in yields; (ii) lower production costs; and (iii) stability and better supply/demand balances. These, in turn, will ensure improved and more stable incomes for producers and workers - the sine qua non for long-term economic viability of the banana industry. To achieve full sustainability, however, the salient environmental and social dimensions relating to the banana sector in Ecuador also should be addressed.
5.2 Environmental sustainability: pests and the use of pesticides
Bananas are among the most import food crops in the world, but they come at a huge cost as they require large amounts of agrochemicals, which have significant negative environmental and health side effects. Chemical applications are known to harm the health of unprotected workers and the inhabitants surrounding the plantations; they also contaminate nearby water supplies, often with long-lasting impacts (FAO, 2003).
The most important challenge is how to mitigate and minimize these side effects. A combination of strict regulations, economic incentives for improved technologies, and broadening the use of nonchemical methods must all be included in a strategy to meet this challenge.
It is important to devise a national regulatory strategy relating to the use of pesticides - providing evidence of minimizing the negative effects of pesticides - and the preservation of the economic viability of banana production. This will be a challenge, however. Possible measures to consider are to:
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