S4- XI International Symposium on Banana: ISHS-ProMusa Symposium on Growing and Marketing Banana under Subtropical Conditions

Hallname: 3B-43

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Conveners:

Invited Speakers:

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As a tropical crop, the potential for bananas to produce year round is best expressed when water is abundant and daily temperatures are in the range of 20-30°C. However, banana production, mainly for national markets, has been developed in many subtropical areas under less than optimal conditions. Bananas are an important cash crop in southern Brazil, Paraguay and Argentina, in countries of North Africa, the Middle East and southern Africa, China, northern India, the Canary Islands and Turkey. In these regions, bananas are subject to sub-optimal temperatures and short days. Highly favorable temperatures and long days in the summer may also include short periods of extreme temperatures above 35°C, while rainfall is also highly variable. These conditions require adapted technologies to achieve sustainable production. At the same time, these regions may also experience certain advantages over tropical production areas, such as reduced pest and disease pressure. Climate change is expected to affect subtropical areas differently, with some areas expected to have improved conditions or be unaffected, and others to have a lower suitability due to changing climatic conditions.

The current symposium will take stock of recent developments in subtropical banana production and marketing, building on concepts and approaches presented during previous symposia. The first ISHS symposium on ‘Banana in the Subtropics' was held in 1998. In 2010, the ISHS Sections on Banana and Plantain and on Tropical and Subtropical Fruits jointly organized a symposium on ‘Citrus, Bananas and other Tropical Fruits under Subtropical Conditions'. In addition, the upcoming symposium on ‘Agro-ecological Approaches to Promote Innovative Banana Production Systems', to be held in Montpellier in October 2016, will provide a suite of technical advances in the deployment of agro-eclogical approaches in banana production, and how these can contribute to the development of innovative sustainable production systems, also in subtropical regions.

Eight years after the last symposium on banana in the subtropics, stakeholders in the subtropical banana sector will benefit from a state-of-the-art of the latest technological advances for the production and marketing of this tropical crop under subtropical conditions. Scientists and growers will be able to discuss alternative production, post-harvest and marketing technologies for more environmentally, socially and economically sustainable value chains.

Main themes: Sub-tropical banana production

• Protected cultivation (greenhouse)
• Abiotic stress management, including irrigation and plant nutrition, drought management, cold and wind tolerance, and climate change
• Biotic stress management, with special focus on Fusarium wilt, diseases in subtropical conditions and post-harvest diseases
• Increased use of banana diversity at the production level
• Quality planting materials
• Organic banana production
• Production costs and economics
• Smart marketing to overcome limitations related to subtropical production
• Post-harvest/quality, and use of banana waste

Scientific Committee

• Inge Van den Bergh - Bioversity International, Belgium - Convener
• Thierry Lescot - Centre de Coopération Internationale en Recherche Agronomique pour le Développement, France (CIRAD) - Convener
• Hamide Gubbuk - Akdeniz University, Turkey - Convener
• Victor Galán Saúco - Instituto Canario de Investigaciones Agrarias (ICIA), Spain - Convener
• Ahmed Ait-Oubahou - Institut Agronomique et Vétérinaire, Hassan II-Complexe Horticole d'Agadir, Morocco
• Edson Perito Amorim - Empresa Brasileira de Pesquisa Agropecuária (EMBRAPA), Brazil
• Fréderic Bakry - CIRAD, France
• Ana Lucia Borges - EMBRAPA, Brazil
• Pierre Brat - CIRAD, Guadeloupe, France
• German Calberto - Colombia
• Sebastien Carpentier - Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, Belgium,
• Jeff Daniells - Department of Agriculture and Fisheries (DAF), Australia
• Sergio Luis Rodrigues Donato - Instituto Federal de Educação, Ciência e Tecnologia Baiano, Brazil
• Navot Galpaz - Galilee Technology Center (MIGAL), Israel
• Diane Mostert - Stellenbosch University, South Africa
• Hasan Pinar - Erciyes University, Turkey
• David Turner - The University of Western Australia, Australia
• Jacob Van Etten - Bioversity International, Costa Rica
• Hans-Willem van der Waal - Agrofair, Netherlands
• Matt Weinert - NSW Department of Primary Industries, Australia
• Ganjun Yi - Guangdong Academy of Agricultural Sciences (GDAAS), China