The banana sector in the French West Indies has launched an ambitious project to develop disease-resistant bananas as part of a wider six-year sustainable banana plan.

An agreement on the deal was signed earlier this month by French farm minister Michel Barnier, the Guadeloupe and Martinique producers’ union UGPBAN, French research body Cirad and the regional and general councils of both islands.

The aim of the agreement is to commit all parties to the development of environment-friendly practices, including a considerable reduction in the use of pesticides.

Cirad researcher François Côte said: “We are not starting from zero on this, neither in terms of the methods nor collaboration. But with this project we want to accelerate research and technology transfer to rise to the environmental challenges.”

Collaborative work on these issues is not new: pesticide usage has already been reduced by 60 per cent over the past six years thanks to co-operation among all stakeholders, but the aim now is for the sustainable banana plan to step all efforts up a gear.

Cirad already has banana operations in the French West Indies, but will now establish a formal Banana Technical Institute to ensure efficiency in production research. It will look in detail at pests and diseases, and at using beneficial fauna on trial plots before transferring best practice to the wider industry.

But the most innovative element of the plan is the intention to develop disease resistance in bananas through genetic improvement.

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