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Promising balance sheet for the plan "long lasting banana"
Guadeloupe
Tuesday 13 April 2010
FJ
Encouraging balance sheet: the use of pesticides was reduced without damaging the production.
Set up since December, 2008, the "long-lasting banana" plan has just made a first balance sheet.
The objective is to use least possible pesticides while keeping a good level of production and by perpetuating jobs. On duration of 5 years, this plan is endowed with a financial envelope of about 14 million euros and distributed between the search, the implementation of environment-friendly techniques, the training of the staff, and the durability of the sector.
A first balance sheet has been made after 15 months of functioning. And the actors of the sector are satisfied: the use of pesticides was reduced without damaging the production.
And to mitigate the use of pesticides, other techniques are organized, as plantations cultivated in vitro and used for replantation, or the multiplication of reproduction of crop rotations systems and the use of plants to replace weed killers.
The Technical Institute of the Banana works on the implementation of a resistant variety to the diseases, and not GMO. Crossings of wild varieties are in study and according to the experts, 5 years of search will be needed to reach a convincing result.
In 2009, Guadeloupe and Martinique produced 270.000 tons of bananas; about 80 % of this production respected the specifications of the long-lasting plan.
Source: RFO.
