Organization and products from an original tool for designing and evaluating cropping practices: the platform "innovative banana cropping systems"

The platform "Innovative banana cropping systems" is based on a toolbox for the design of prototypes of cropping systems that are ecologically intensified. This toolbox includes a collection of cover plants which can be used as cover-crop and therefore provide a set of agro-ecological services. In the framework of the Caribbean Sustainable project, following a diagnosis of current cropping systems, the constraints and specifications for designing innovative cropping systems were defined for different banana production areas of the Windward Islands and the French West Indies. Prototypes of cropping systems were built introducing cover plants in banana cropping systems initially poorly diversified. These prototypes were built and assessed under a participatory approach involving producers groups, technical institutes and research institutes. Innovative cropping systems were assessed at first on experimental plots and then, on farm, in real conditions of production using various indicators of crop functioning and agro-economical performances. (Resume d'auteur)