This paper aims to describe and analyze the diversity of indigenous banana-farming cultures in Asia and Africa, focusing on the variation in local cultivars. First, we describe local cultivars, cropping systems, and uses in 13 research areas and then characterize each banana-farming culture by the cultural and economic importance of the crop. Second, we map the distribution of genome types and the relationships between uses and genome types.

We found clear differences in the distributional patterns of genome types between Asia and eastern coastal Africa, and inland Africa; the former has a wide range of genome types with a relatively small number of local cultivars within each genome type, while the latter has many local cultivars within a limited number of genome types. The areas also differ with regard to the economic and cultural importance of bananas. Bananas are regarded as a staple food or staple material in Africa, whereas in Asia they are regarded as an ingredient for snacks, cakes or medicines.

A comparison of the banana-farming cultures indicates that the diversity of local cultivars arises from a balance among such actors, as farmers, traders, and consumers in urban areas or the northern countries, who have little idea of the abundant local cultivars produced in the south.