Farmers produced them mainly for family consumption. But since market demand increased for these products they got more importance between farmer’s crop choices. The study showed that the most used agricultural practices were crop associations,the mechanical destruction of diseased plants, the installation of banana and plantain plantations in lowlands, crop rotation, the use of composts and manures to fertilize the soil. Many banana and plantain farmers use organic farming practices and their cropping systems are likely to be converted to organic production systems. These good organic farming practices contribute to the sustainability of banana production systems and improve the productivity and profitability of the value chain . This is very relevant and shows the potential of bananas and plantains value chain potential to be converted into organic production with many ecological and social economic opportunities.Results also showed that almost all of the farmers surveyed knew the symptoms of Banana Bunchy Top Disease . Only farmers in the Atlantic and Mono do not know the methods of managing this disease showing that they have not received training on best practices for managing BBTD.
In this study,the identification of symptoms of BBTD is based on direct observations and not modern technologies using aerial images and machine learning methods .Farmers in Oueme and Plateau have received several pieces of training on the management of this disease and some producers still use glyphosate, Sharp 480and Lagon to control it. Raising awareness and training farmers on agroecological methods such as roguing developed in previous studies are essential to better control this disease in bananas. Banana weevil and nematodes are also identified as the major pests of bananas in the study area, but farmers use many agroecological practices for their sustainable management.Other studies showed that the incorporation around the plant base of powdered neem seed or cake at 60 100 g/mat at4-month intervals, gave better control of the banana weevil, Cosmopolites sordidus, and parasitic nematodes, than that achieved with soil application of Furadan 5Gat 60 g/mat at 6-month intervals. Several constraints limit the production of bananas and plantains. The majority of these stresses were the effects of climate change, the premature fall of banana plants due to lack of water and damage from diseases and pests. Climate change,mobile vertical farm diseases and pests weaken the production systems of bananas and plantains. These constraints have been identified in other studies as the main constraints in banana and plantain production . Other constraints such as those of commercialization have been identified.
It’s about the low selling price and access to markets. This study allowed us to understand the banana and plantain production systems and the challenges to be met for an improvement of their value chain. Small-scale farmers stand to gain higher incomes from farming if they diversify their activities and venture into the cultivation of HVCs as opposed to solely relying on staple crops which produce low earnings . HVCs can also improve the ability of small-scale farmers to meet their household food security needs through incomes obtained from participation in local and export markets to purchase food for household consumption. Farmers’ potential to access lucrative markets is hinged on their ability to successfully produce quality products .The Vhembe district has highly favourable agro-ecological conditions for the production of sub-tropical fruits and nuts . Large-scale commercial farmers who are predominantly white have mainly controlled these sectors in the region ;however there has been a more recent drive by government towards the commercialization of these commodities amongst small-scale farmers as a means of addressing rural poverty and unemployment . The local Department of Agriculture recorded 1113 commercially oriented small-scale farmers growing sub-tropical fruit and nuts in the Vhembe district in 2018 cultivating a total land area of 4713 hectares . These farmers are strongly supported by the private sector, specifically commodity associations, that aim to assist small-scale farmers to increase their yields and expand the land area under cultivation.