Growing bananas is great business

Bananas now mean business. "The National Research Centre for Banana (NRCB) has developed technologies to make 12 products out of bananas and mass production of banana products is already on," said MM Mustaffa, director, NRCB, Trichy. NRCB is a premier research body under the Indian Council of Agriculture Research.

Right from chips, juice, jam, pickles, sauce, flour, candies to beverages, the business of banana is catching on.

"Twelve industries across Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh and Kerala are producing banana pickles through the technology from NRCB. Such ventures are also coming up in Maharashtra and Gujarat. To provide the push for banana products, NRCB is frequently conducting workshops across these states," he informed.

The NRCB has developed a starch powder out of plantains, which is ideal for the diabetics and its banana stem juice product may offer a cure for kidney stones. The centre is now in the process of developing the technology for preparing pickles out of banana peels.

"The centre, in the next one year, would come out with three varieties of high-yield and multi-locationally cultivable banana. The shelf-life of these bananas will be more and they will have better taste and flavour," Mustaffa said.

According to estimates, with an annual production of 16.8 million tonnes, bananas contribute 32 per cent to the total fruit production in India.

The NRCB will host a national conference on banana from October 25-28 at Tiruchirappalli to formulate strategies for boosting the production and productivity of banana.