The goal

The Agroecological Practices and Water Management Subgroup aims to promote relevant sector innovation and rethink banana farming around the world. These efforts are done on behalf of the World Banana Forum (WBF) members and partners.

A special focus should be given to the importance of South–South cooperation systems to share knowledge and collectively understand sustainability trends within the banana sector.

The objective

The objective is to facilitate exchanges between smallholder banana farmers to share technical knowledge and experiences on agroecological, organic and polyculture production methods, along with measures to adapt to climate change.

The consensus in Working Group 01 (WG01) is that chemically reliant conventional monoculture production of bananas is not sustainable, and that alternative agroecological methods of production need to be developed.

Main workstreams

1. Promotion of key messages and actions:

The aim is to showcase the work of the WBF in promoting agroecology and move away from chemically reliant monoculture production. Sharing information on agroecological practices drawn from WBF members’ experiences is fundamental in leading by example. This involves the systematization of smallholder successes with the goal of presenting them at all international events and national/regional workshops.

2. South–South–North initiative:

The current work focuses on setting a South–South–North family farmers’ information exchange. This provides an opportunity to share best practices and experiences on agroecological and organic production methods, as well as adaptation to climate change.

Key topics include

• agroecological practices and other sustainable banana production alternatives;
• understanding water issues affecting banana producers and identifying common solutions to guide the WBF and the Subgroup’s direction in effectively addressing water needs faced by banana producers;
• good water and soil management practices for small producers, especially those that address climate resilience, nonpoint source pollution, control and water-use efficiency; and
• interconnections of the aforementioned issues, as well as agroecological farm practices with gender, youth and labour.