Moderator(s): Luc de Lapeyre de Bellaire, Cirad, France ; Hans-Willem van der Waal, Koopliedenweg, The Netherlands
Organic bananas are important for social and ecological development and constitute a growing segment of the banana industry. The organic banana producers, small and large, are confronted with specific agronomic challenges and concerns that cannot be solved with existing solutions from conventional agriculture. There is therefore a need to develop a research agenda specifically for organic bananas that is aligned with the needs of the producers, making research more relevant for development.
Workshop description:
In the workshop, we will understand better the needs of the professional organic banana producers by presenting the results of semi-structured interviews with 20-30 organic banana producers in different parts of the world, focusing on the agronomic challenges that they highlight. This will be contrasted with the results from a concise bibliographic analysis. These two elements will be very briefly presented to kindle the discussion among the participants and the exchange of views, experiences, and initiatives. Questions to be discussed further are e.g. how the participants view the priorities indicated by producers, how results of scientific research relevant for producers can be shared, how an ongoing interaction between the research community and producers can take shape, which resources are needed, and which networks could be formed. The workshop is relevant for researchers and practitioners alike.
