by Gokul Rajendran, Times of India
Taking the research on banana forward, the National Research Centre for Banana (NRCB), Trichy, is working on a project to bring out an ‘iron-rich banana’ variety. The centre is roping in farmers to adopt the latest technology to achieve profit in the cultivation of banana.
“NRCB has begun the research to make a banana rich in iron content with an aim to rectify the iron deficiency which affects many people in our country. If our efforts prove successful, the new variety of banana will be a boon to the people to get rid of deficiency,” said director (in-charge) of ICAR-NRCB Dr B Padmanaban on the sidelines of the 22nd Foundation Day and Kisan Mela on Friday.
The research which commenced a year and a half ago is being jointly taken up by Bio-technology Industry Research Assistance Council of Department of Bio-technology (DBT), Indian Institute of Horticulture Research and Queensland University of Australia. The scientists are not sure when the project would be completed successfully because it involves a lot of tests in the labs.
Director General of Indian Council of Agriculture Research (ICAR) Dr S Ayyappan from New Delhi called the banana farmers ‘high-tech farmers’. “The tissue culture banana plants will result in profitable yield to farmers. The way the banana cultivation is going on is high-precision and the farmers are also high-tech,” Dr Ayyappan said.
Friday’s event drew a lot of banana growers and entrepreneurs not only from Tamil Nadu but also from Andhra and Karnataka. NRCB has roped in farmers to adopt their new technology from farming to storage of the banana. The research centre said the farmers suffered 25% of loss post-harvest due to improper handling, ripening and storing. However, they claimed that their technology reduced the loss to 10% to 15%.
Scientists urged farmers to use the NRCB-certified tissue culture plants from 22 tissue culture banana farms in the state. They claimed that the tissue culture plants will not be affected by viral diseases like Bunchy Top, Banana Bract Mosaic, Streak Virus and the yield will also be remarkable.
NRCB said 30 million metric tonnes of banana were harvested in 800,000 hectares in India while Tamil Nadu recorded 120,000 hectares of cultivation which yielded 570,000 metric tonnes of banana.
Source: Times of India