Scaling continuous improvement in family organic export banana (BOFX)

Family organic bananas produced for exportation provide viable livelihoods for thousands of families in Ecuador, Peru, and the Dominican Republic, generating weekly income and employing local labor. These producers are under pressure from increasing losses from bananas being rejected due to red rust caused by Thrips, increasing costs for fertilizers, and greater climatic variability. The FTG-RF-1332-RG project developed ecological intensification strategies such as bagging the banana bud before it opens, monitoring the causes of banana rejects and the frequency of pesticide applications, nutrient balance, and strategic placement of banana plant residues and fertilizers. These promising practices will be promoted among 50 pilot producers in each country who will later serve as the starting point for larger producer groups to expand the use of the practices. The producers and their associations will have the support of an application Ma$ Banano that facilitates data collection from the field uploaded to an online database through a routine of diagnosis, follow-up, and monitoring. Teams in each association and in a sectorial working group will use the data collected in discussions to inform continuous improvement and benchmarking