IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/ags/cfcs09/256344.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Sustainability Of The Windward Islands Banana Industry Through Agrotourism

Author

Listed:
  • Isaac, Wendy P.
  • Ganpat, Wayne G.
  • Bowen-O'Connor, Clare
  • St. Martin, Chaney C. G.
  • Brathwaite, Richard A. I.

Abstract

With the future of the banana export industry in the Windward Islands in serious doubt, this paper considers the potential of Agro-tourism for the resuscitation of the industry. The banana industry and tourism are the main industries in the Windward Islands. The banana industry in the Windward Islands of Dominica, Grenada, St. Lucia and St. Vincent and the Grenadines has undergone constant turmoil from the inception of the industry in the 1930s to present. The mass exodus of banana farmers in the early 1990s saw a movement into the tourism sector to sustain their livelihood. This paper examines the potential of Agro-tourism as an opportunity for banana producing communities through diversification, the promotion of entrepreneurship, education and general well being of citizens. The banana industry offers several opportunities in the areas of agro/eco/heritage tourism as a supplier of premium commodities: fresh fruit for table with all the health benefits; preparation of exotic dishes like soused banana; plantain for cooking and chips; and farm tours combined with some exposure to local customs such as foods and cultural dances. This new paradigm is not the panacea for rural renaissance, but it presents a window of opportunity to embark upon revitalizing the rural banana industry that has for too long never had sustained growth. Special attention has to be paid to the ways in which the development of tourist attractions could encourage changes in attitudes toward rural assessment and entrepreneurship. This paper examines what this means for any improvements in the banana industry and the question of how we can (or we should) broaden/widen the banana product base in the Caribbean to create greater wealth.

Suggested Citation

  • Isaac, Wendy P. & Ganpat, Wayne G. & Bowen-O'Connor, Clare & St. Martin, Chaney C. G. & Brathwaite, Richard A. I., 2009. "Sustainability Of The Windward Islands Banana Industry Through Agrotourism," 45th Annual Meeting, July 12-17, 2009, Frigate Bay, St. Kitts and Nevis 256344, Caribbean Food Crops Society.
    • Handle: RePEc:ags:cfcs09:256344
    DOI: 10.22004/ag.econ.256344
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://ageconsearch.umn.edu/record/256344/files/Isaac-Ganpat-OConnor-Martin-Brathwaite.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.22004/ag.econ.256344?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Laura Raynolds, 2000. "Re-embedding global agriculture: The international organic and fair trade movements," Agriculture and Human Values, Springer;The Agriculture, Food, & Human Values Society (AFHVS), vol. 17(3), pages 297-309, September.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Sylvaine Poret, 2007. "Les défis du commerce équitable dans l'hémisphère Nord," Working Papers hal-00243061, HAL.
    2. Ximena Rueda & Andrea Paz & Theodora Gibbs‐Plessl & Ronald Leon & Byron Moyano & Eric F Lambin, 2018. "Smallholders at a Crossroad: Intensify or Fall behind? Exploring Alternative Livelihood Strategies in a Globalized World," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 27(2), pages 215-229, February.
    3. Lindsay Naylor, 2014. "“Some are more fair than others”: fair trade certification, development, and North–South subjects," Agriculture and Human Values, Springer;The Agriculture, Food, & Human Values Society (AFHVS), vol. 31(2), pages 273-284, June.
    4. Sarah Bowen & Tad Mutersbaugh, 2014. "Local or localized? Exploring the contributions of Franco-Mediterranean agrifood theory to alternative food research," Agriculture and Human Values, Springer;The Agriculture, Food, & Human Values Society (AFHVS), vol. 31(2), pages 201-213, June.
    5. Jean-Marie Codron & Lucie Siriex & Thomas Reardon, 2006. "Social and environmental attributes of food products in an emerging mass market: Challenges of signaling and consumer perception, with European illustrations," Agriculture and Human Values, Springer;The Agriculture, Food, & Human Values Society (AFHVS), vol. 23(3), pages 283-297, October.
    6. Vellema, W. & Buritica Casanova, A. & Gonzalez, C. & D’Haese, M., 2015. "The effect of specialty coffee certification on household livelihood strategies and specialisation," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 57(C), pages 13-25.
    7. Jess Bonnan-White & Andrea Hightower & Ameena Issa, 2013. "Of couscous and occupation: a case study of women’s motivations to join and participate in Palestinian fair trade cooperatives," Agriculture and Human Values, Springer;The Agriculture, Food, & Human Values Society (AFHVS), vol. 30(3), pages 337-350, September.
    8. David Goodman, 2000. "Organic and conventional agriculture: Materializing discourse and agro-ecological managerialism," Agriculture and Human Values, Springer;The Agriculture, Food, & Human Values Society (AFHVS), vol. 17(3), pages 215-219, September.
    9. Taylor, Peter Leigh, 2005. "In the Market But Not of It: Fair Trade Coffee and Forest Stewardship Council Certification as Market-Based Social Change," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 33(1), pages 129-147, January.
    10. Podhorsky, Andrea, 2015. "A positive analysis of Fairtrade certification," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 116(C), pages 169-185.
    11. Elisabeth Nindl, 2014. "An empirical assessment of Fairtrade: A perspective for low- and middle-income countries?," EcoMod2014 6866, EcoMod.
    12. Alessandra Arcuri, 2015. "The Transformation of organic regulation: The ambiguous effects of publicization," Regulation & Governance, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 9(2), pages 144-159, June.
    13. Jessica Goldberger, 2008. "Non-governmental organizations, strategic bridge building, and the “scientization” of organic agriculture in Kenya," Agriculture and Human Values, Springer;The Agriculture, Food, & Human Values Society (AFHVS), vol. 25(2), pages 271-289, June.
    14. Laura T. Raynolds & Claudia Rosty, 2021. "Fair Trade USA coffee plantation certification: Ramifications for workers in Nicaragua," Development Policy Review, Overseas Development Institute, vol. 39(S1), pages 102-121, August.
    15. Sylvaine Poret, 2006. "Fair trade and large-scale distribution [Le commerce équitable face à la grande distribution]," Working Papers hal-02819474, HAL.
    16. Sylvaine Poret & Claire Chambolle, 2007. "Fair Trade: In or Out the Market?," Working Papers hal-00243062, HAL.
    17. Olga KUTNOHORSKÁ & Pavel TOMŠÍK, 2013. "Consumers' perception of the health aspects of organic food," Agricultural Economics, Czech Academy of Agricultural Sciences, vol. 59(7), pages 293-299.
    18. Luis F. Samper & Xiomara F. Quiñones-Ruiz, 2017. "Towards a Balanced Sustainability Vision for the Coffee Industry," Resources, MDPI, vol. 6(2), pages 1-28, April.
    19. Tracy D. Johnson-Hall & David C. Hall, 2022. "Redefining Quality in Food Supply Chains via the Natural Resource Based View and Convention Theory," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(15), pages 1-26, August.
    20. Verónica Borbolla-Pérez & Lourdes Georgina Iglesias-Andreu & Mauricio Luna-Rodríguez & Pablo Octavio-Aguilar, 2017. "Perceptions regarding the challenges and constraints faced by smallholder farmers of vanilla in Mexico," Environment, Development and Sustainability: A Multidisciplinary Approach to the Theory and Practice of Sustainable Development, Springer, vol. 19(6), pages 2421-2441, December.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:ags:cfcs09:256344. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: AgEcon Search (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://cfcs.eea.uprm.edu/ .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.