Humitropics conference

1. agroforestry systems
with perennial crops
Improving banana agroecosystem productivity:
Lessons for integrated systems integration
C. Staver, P. Siles, O. Bustamante, N. Castellon, S. Mpiira

2. Bananas – mixed cropping
Bananas – backyard Bananas –
perennial crops
Smallholder bananas

3. Farmer technology
Rapid shade
Easy to manage
Food
Feed
Food
Feed
Regular monthly incomeFood
Feed
Crop residue
Soil cover

4. What can science contribute
to improve smallholder management
of complex systems?
Multi-strata coffee with banana
4 countries Latin America
Mixed food and perennial crops
with banana – Central Uganda

5. 5
Farmers and scientists prototype intensification approaches

6. 6

7. Costa Rica Honduras Nicaragua Perú
Productive coffee
(%) 31±4 48±7 51±5 52±5
Coffee Density
(plants ha-1) 4244±242 4736±248 4845±173 5098±256
Banana Density
(plants ha-1) 601±55 302±25 354±25 386±32
Tree Density
(Number ha-1) 553±57 163±12 185±19 197±15
Basal area trees
(m2 ha-1) 16.4±1.9 10.2±1.1 8.2±0.7 9.1±0.8
Species Richness
(trees) 4.4 6.6 6.8 3.8
Results: diagnostic shaded coffee with bananas

8. Costa
Rica
Honduras Nicaragua Perú
Percent Light to coffee
(%)
46±3 35±2.3 45±3 39±2
Percent Light to Banana
(%)
68±2 72±3 66±3 50±2
Banana present
above coffee (%)
61±5 52±3 61±4 56±4
Tree present
above banana (%)
38±5 63±6 45±4 73±7
Light in different strata – shaded coffee with banana

9. Priorities – Farmer proposed
after 3 meetings on the state of coffee, trees, bananas, costs
- coffee pruning
- banana/coffee nutrition and fertilization
- banana/tree spacing and mgmt
- Panama disease
- more value for bananas

10. Pesodelracimo(Kg)
0
5
10
15
20
25
30
Gros Michel
Williams
Datil
Minima 25% 50% 75%
PAR (mol m-2
s-1
)
0 500 1000 1500 2000
An(molm
-2
s
-1
)
0
10
20
30
40
75% Light
50% Light
25% Light
100% Light
Fotosíntesisneta(molm-
2s-1)
RAFA (mol m-2s-1)
Banana response to partial light - agroforestry
- Minimal effect of 25-35% light reduction
- Bigger bunch partial light cultivar Gros Michel
- Gros Michel bunches even in deep shade

11. 11
¿How many bananas
with still acceptable coffee yield?
Tree shade: 25-35%
Light to coffee plants: 50%
Sombra de platano: ??

12. 12

13. 13

15. Better prices for banana – farmer initiatives
Now Before
Volume 2,206
crates
356 sacos
Sale price 28 70
Gross Income 61,768 24,951
Marketing Costs 22,060 12,104
Net Income 39,708 12,847
Increased income 3 times
Before
Now
Steps:
- Reconnaissance of possible markets
by farmer commission;
- ID of promising options grower group
- Feasibility study of alternative options
- Pilot marketing and expansion

16. What is the role of trees and shrubs as mulch and fodder
in banana productivity maintenance/improvement?

18. Kikyusa Kisweeka Mateete
Banana mats/farm: 355 291 571
Trees/farm: 23 15 11
% Households with livestock: 68 31 29
% households manure banana: 17% 18 24
% households mulch banana: 25% 18 21
% bananas under trees: 4.7% 6.7 1.6
% trees pruned: 9% 7 7
Diagnostic: components and their linkages
Co-existence on farm, although not highly integrated
Good neighbor trees for banana: Albizia, Ficus
Bananas friendly to neighboring trees: kibuzi, kisana
Trees/shrubs for fodder: ficus, jackfruit, mango,

19. Banana response to manure and mulch?
Fodder needed to feed a zero-grazed goat?
Tree/fodder species for energy and protein?
Tree/shrub productivity in dry and wet season?
Manure produced by zero-grazed goat?
Calculations
Field measurements

20. 20
69 households in three zones

21. Tools and guidelines

22. More goats
More shrub fodder
More manure More, bigger bunches

23. Integrated smallholder systems intensification
Emerging useful approaches
New knowledge essential: simple, complicated, complex
- Symptom recognition Fusarium,
but not sucker transmission and long life in soil
- All components already on farm
(bananas, goats, trees, shrubs, manure)
but new way of using them

24. Integrated smallholder systems intensification
Emerging useful approaches
Agroecosystem processes – observation/decision tools
- Nutrient balance applied to mixed system
- Using free light and water for biomass production
mulch, fodder, others
- System design for pest/disease mgmt

25. Integrated smallholder systems intensification
Emerging useful approaches
Iterative, adaptive learning approaches
to generate prototypes
- Improved decision making/figure out how to start
- Cost calculations to filter agroecosystem options
-Who else in the household is implicated
- Consideration of alternative intensification pathways

26. Integrated smallholder systems intensification
What we did not do, but saw relevance

27. Food security
Dietary diversity
Ecosystem services
water
Household
typologies

28. Chaos
Coffee rust in 2013
Innovation systems
Next generation of prototypes

29. www.bioversityinternational.org
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