Abstract

DELGADO, Eduardo et al. An index of soil quality and health for banana plantations in four countries of Latin America and the Caribbean. Bioagro [online]. 2010, vol.22, n.1, pp.53-60. ISSN 1316-3361.

The productivity of banana plantations in several Latin America and Caribbean countries has shown significant declines over the past decade which has been associated with a deterioration of physical, chemical and biological soil factors. This study aimed to construct a mathematical index to describe the quality and health of these soils, indicating the most critical factors in production. Sixty-six indicators were measured in 38 selected banana farms with different levels of production in Costa Rica, Dominican Republic, Panama and Venezuela. Discriminant analysis for all of the countries indicated that the explanatory variables of discrimination are quite different among the countries, so we proceeded to define individually the quality and health indices. Seventeen indicators were identified for Costa Rica, 13 for Panama, 11 for Venezuela and 22 from Dominican Republic; the latter divided in 11 indicators for organic and 11 for conventional production. It was also determined that the selected indicators are reliable for distinguishing areas of high and low productivity in the farms.

Keywords : Banana; soil physics; soil chemistry; soil biology.