Developpement D'Une Nouvelle Variete De Bananes : La Flhorban 920

Export Banana is the first agricultural production in the French West Indies. Intensive cropping of this banana generally induces substantial pollution and damage to the fragile tropical insular environment of Guadeloupe and Martinique. Moreover, high production costs and international competition make it difficult to compete in these conditions. Among the tools developed by CIRAD to promote alternative and sustainable banana cropping systems as well in an economic way as in an ecological one, creation and selection of new varieties that are resistant or tolerant to the main pests and diseases of bananas are the main purpose of a fifteen years lasting research program. Since three years, work has been focused on the validation of these new disease-resistant hybrids, involved in an integrated development program, VaNouBa, gathering all the aspects of evaluation in industrial conditions: agronomy, phytopathology, physiology and genetics. Within the frame of this project, the promising hybrid "FlhorBan 920" is being studied. Twenty hectares have thus been planted in Guadeloupe and Martinique in 2004 with this variety which is resistant to Yellow Sigatoka Disease (Mycosphaerella musicola) and Black Leaf Streak Disease (M. fijiensis), and tolerant to lesion nematodes. Thanks to its multiple resistance/tolerance features, this variety can validly be considered as an environmentally-friendly banana. Moreover the fruit, looking and tasting different from the traditional Cavendish varieties may allow the banana growers from Martinique and Guadeloupe to propose a very specific and competitive product. The success of the current development step will lead to a very near commercial launching step.