Sustainability assessment of plantain crops in the Southern Caribbean of Costa Rica
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.15359/rca.55-1.12Keywords:
Conventional agrosystems; Musaceae; productivity; traditional agrosystemsAbstract
[Introduction]: Plantains are among the main foods produced worldwide due to their nutritional value. They are grown in the tropics by small farmers for subsistence and consumption economy. In Costa Rica, plantain plantations are in different sectors of the country, the Huetar Atlantic region (RHA) being one of the most important ones. [Objective]: Sustainability indicators adapted to the reality of traditional production systems and conventional systems of small plantain producers in the Southern Caribbean of Costa Rica were evaluated, using the Sustainability Assessment of Food and Agriculture (SAFA) tool of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO). [Methodology]: This research was conducted in the Southern Caribbean of Costa Rica, in the Bratsi and Sixaola districts, Talamanca. This region’s annual precipitation is 2 387 mm and the average temperature is 26.5 °C. Production systems were studied: two traditional and two conventional, each with a 2 500 m2 area. SAFA, a holistic tool to measure sustainability in agricultural production systems, was applied through 41 indicators of environmental integrity, economic resilience, and social well-being. [Results]: Environmental integrity ranged between 42 and 87 %, economic resilience between 78 and 96 %, and social well-being between 81 to 96 %. [Conclusion]: The sustainability evaluation showed that traditional systems had better scores than the conventional ones.
References
Acuña Sossa, K., & Umaña Gutiérrez, D. (2015). Manual de prácticas ancestrales bribí y cabécar: Proyecto el medio rural frente a los retos del cambio climático (territorio Talamanca - Valle la Estrella). CUDECA.
Barraza, D., Jansen, K., van Wendel de Joode, B., & Wesseling, C. (2011). Pesticide use in banana and plantain production and risk perception among local actors in Talamanca, Costa Rica. Environmental Research, 111(5), 708-717. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.envres.2011.02.009
Bennet, A. (1999). Enlazando el paisaje: El papel de los corredores y la conectividad en la conservación de vida silvestre. Programa de conservación de Bosques UICN. https://portals.iucn.org/library/sites/library/files/documents/FR-021-Es.pdf
Bonisoli, L., Galdeano-Gómez, E., Piedra-Muñoz, L., & Pérez-Mesa, J. C. (2019). Benchmarking agri-food sustainability certifications: Evidences from applying SAFA in the Ecuadorian banana agri-system. Journal of Cleaner Production, 236, 117579. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2019.07.054
Canto, B., Orozco, M., Martínez, L., Manzo, G., James, A., Rodríguez, C., Islas, I., Beltrán, M., Guzmán, S., Garrido, E., Higuera, I., & Sandoval, J. (2015). Bananos y plátanos, frente al cambio climático. En Hacia dónde va la ciencia en México: Ecosistemas, plagas y cambio climático (pp. 61-77). Consejo Nacional de Ciencia y Tecnología.
Carvajal-García, M., Zuluaga-Arango, P., Ocampo-López, O. L., & Duque-Gómez, D. (Julio-diciembre, 2019). Las exportaciones de plátano como una estrategia de desarrollo rural en Colombia. Apuntes del Cenes, 38(68), 113-148. https://doi.org/10.19053/01203053.v38.n68.2019.8383
Dita, M. A., Waalwijk, C., Buddenhagen, I. W., Souza Jr, M. T., & Kema, G. H. J. (2010). A molecular diagnostic for tropical race 4 of the banana fusarium wilt pathogen. Plant Pathology, 59(2), 348-357. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1365-3059.2009.02221.x
EAT-Lancet. (2019). Dietas saludables a partir de sistemas alimentarios sostenibles. https://eatforum.org/content/uploads/2019/01/Report_Summary_Spanish-1.pdf
Gayatri, S., Gasso-tortajada, V., & Vaarst, M. (2016). Assessing Sustainability of Smallholder Beef Cattle Farming in Indonesia: A Case Study Using the FAO SAFA Framework. Journal of Sustainable Development, 9(3), 236. https://doi.org/10.5539/jsd.v9n3p236
Gendron, M., Gravel, V., & Carisse, O. (2017). Assessment tool to compare the environmental, economic, and social sustainability of strawberry production systems in Quebec. Acta Horticulturae, 1156, 587-592. https://doi.org/10.17660/ActaHortic.2017.1156.87
Hugé, J., Waas, T., Dahdouh-Guebas, F., Koedam, N., & Block, T. (2013). A discourse-analytical perspective on sustainability assessment: Interpreting sustainable development in practice. Sustainability Science, 8(2), 187-198. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11625-012-0184-2
Instituto Meteorológico Nacional de Costa Rica. (2020). Estación Meteorológica Puerto Vargas, Talamanca. www.imn.ac.cr/especial/estacionPtovargas.html
Jones, DR. (2000). Introduction to banana, abaca and enset. In D. R. Jones (Ed.), Diseases of Banana, Abaca and Enset (p.36). CABI Publications.
Marchand, F., Debruyne, L., Triste, L., Gerrard, C., Padel, S., & Lauwers, L. (2014). Key characteristics for tool choice in indicator-based sustainability assessment at farm level. Ecology and Society, 19(3), art46. https://doi.org/10.5751/ES-06876-190346
Martínez-Solórzano, G. E., Rey-Brina, J. C., Pargas-Pichardo, R. E., & Manzanilla, E. E. (2019). Marchitez por Fusarium raza tropical 4: Estado actual y presencia en el continente americano. Agronomía Mesoamericana, 259-276. https://doi.org/10.15517/am.v31i1.37925
Ministerio de Planificación de Costa Rica [MIDEPLAN] (2017). Índice de desarrollo social. Ministerio de Planificación Nacional y Política Económica. https://documentos.mideplan.go.cr/share/s/BXb_ILLDRwqVI_zHV3NadQ
Observatorio del Desarrollo. (2017). Índice de competitividad cantonal Costa Rica 2006-2016. Universidad de Costa Rica. https://www.ucr.ac.cr/medios/documentos/2017/icc-odd-2006-2016.pdf
Organización de las Naciones Unidas para la Alimentación y Agricultura [FAO]. (2009). Guía para la descripción de suelos. http://www.fao.org/3/a-a0541s.pdf
Organización de las Naciones Unidas para la Alimentación y Agricultura [FAO]. (2013). SAFA Sustainability Assessment of Food and Agriculture Systems Indicators. http://www.fao.org/3/a-i4113e.pdf
Organización de las Naciones Unidas para la Alimentación y Agricultura [FAO] (2018). FAOSTAT. http://www.fao.org/faostat/en/#data/QC
Organización Internacional del Trabajo [OIT]. (2014). Convenio 169 de la OIT sobre pueblos indígenas y tribales. Oficina Regional de la OIT para América Latina y el Caribe. https://www.ilo.org/wcmsp5/groups/public/---americas/---ro-lima/documents/publication/wcms_345065.pdf
Organización Mundial de Salud [OMS]. (2018). Residuos de plaguicidas en los alimentos. https://www.who.int/es/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/pesticide-residues-in-food
Organización para la Cooperación y el Desarrollo Económico [OECD]. (2017). Agricultural Policies in Costa Rica. OECD Publishing. http://www.oecd.org/countries/costarica/AgPol_CR_en.pdf
Russo, R. & Ureña Prado, E. (2006). The banana sector in the Atlantic region of Costa Rica. Proc. Fla. State Hort Soc., 119, 52-55.
Sánchez-Brenes, R., & Moya, M. (2018). Biodiversidad en fincas cafetaleras de Rincón de Mora, San Ramón, Alajuela, Costa Rica. Revista Pensamiento Actual, 18, 68-86.
Schindler, J., Graef, F., & König, H. J. (2015). Methods to assess farming sustainability in developing countries. A review. Agronomy for Sustainable Development, 35(3), 1043-1057. https://doi.org/10.1007/s13593-015-0305-2
Vargas, A., Watler, W., Morales, M., & Vignola, R. (2017). Prácticas efectivas para la reducción de impactos por eventos climáticos en el cultivo de banano en Costa Rica. Informe final sobre cultivo de banano. Ministerio de Agricultura y Ganadería. http://www.mag.go.cr/bibliotecavirtual/reduccion-impacto-por-eventos-climaticos/Informe-final-Banano.pdf
Vargas, R. (2006). Biodiversity in humid tropical banana plantations where there has been long-term use of crop protection products. Agronomía Costarricense, 30(2), 83-109.
Viljoen, A., Kunert, K., Kiggundu, A., & Escalant, J. V. (2004). Biotechnology for sustainable banana and plantain production in Africa: The South African contribution. South African Journal of Botany, 70(1), 67-74. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0254-6299(15)30308-2
Whelan, M., Stoian, D., Wulfhorst, J. D., Somarriba, E., & Soto, G. (2008). Medios de vida y dinámica del uso del suelo en los territorios indígenas bribri y cabécar de Talamanca, Costa Rica. Agroforestería de las Américas, 46, 51 56.
Downloads
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
