Varietal selection, the corner stone of integrated pest management in bananas
As for any other crop, the integrated pest management on banana is based on genetic, biological, and chemical methods and on some cultural practices. The exported monospecific banana production mainly relies on very intensive cultural practices and the banana agro-industrial plantations offer very favorable conditions for the development of various pests and diseases. Among the nematode species, the burrowing nematode #Radopholus similis# is a root lesion nematode strictly linked with the worlwide "Cavendish" #Musa# variety and accordingly to environmental factors. The #Radopholus similis# populations seem diversified in term of aggressiveness. Hopefully the #Musa# germplasm complex is also diversified. If only few banana clones are widely cultivated in the world, different sources of resistance to diseases and pests have been identified among the wild and related #Musa# species and the few breeding programs that exist in the world are using these sources of resistances to create banana hybrids. Therefore, more information is urgently needed on these different natural banana sources of resistance growing in various environmental conditions to increase the variability which should exist among the commercialized bananas. Only the combination of improved resistant varieties cultivated with appropriate cultural practices will offer to future consumers (domestic and export) a large range of tasty and safe bananas. (Texte intégral)