Publication: Organic Farming in Martinique

Plenty of bananas and a little sugarcane for rum: Martinique still relies, to a large extent, on these major tropical cash crops for its economy. But for how much longer? Competition from neighboring countries with low labor costs, coupled with the fragility of European Union subsidies, has made this an urgent issue today. Martinique is wondering what hopes it can pin on the development of “organic farming” to meet these challenges. Seventeen researchers—experts in tropical agriculture on the one hand and “organic” techniques on the other—have jointly studied the conditions under which organic agriculture, whether certified or not, is feasible, how it might find markets, and how it could help revitalize the image of agriculture by forging new links between agriculture and food on the island of Martinique.