Bananas and Food Security - Bioversity International

Asie - Pacifique / Asia - Pacific : K. Pushkaran
Mannan, Dudhsagar and Nendrapadathi and in ABB – Padathi, Chakkia, Kullan and so
on are some of the other local clones with one or the other desirable traits. Elavazhai
(BB) is a seeded hardy type suited for leaf collection as the vernakular name denotes.
Pisangseribu (AAB) is a peculiar mutant of M. chiliocarpa with innumerable hands of
very tightly packed tiny fruits of ornamental value.
M. ornata (n = 11) of section Rhodochlamys is of ornamental value, short in stature,
shade tolerant and lean with very small bunch. The rhizome is widely spreading and pest
and disease infection found to be very little. With the objective of breeding short
duration, shade and other stress tolerant genotypes with ratooning ability to be utilized
as intercrop in perennial gardens/in homesteads, an interspecific cross attemped by the
author (1989b) between M. ornata and M. acuminata was found very successful. Many
of the seedlings exhibited heterosis and the incidence of pests and diseases practically
nil. This indicates the scope of utilising this unexploited species in banana genetic
improvement efforts.
Besides the intercultivar variability, a lot of intraclonal variation does exist in many
of the cultivars, mainly due to very long period of cultivation under widely varying
situations. Such genetic variations had been reported already in Palayankodan by
Rajeevan (1985) and in Nendran by Pushkaran et al. (1990). The existence of mixoploids
in the same cultivar as reported by Raman (1973) in Neyvannan and Hill banana and the
isolation of diploid (AA) clone from Mauritius (AAA) further suggests the significance of
exploring intraclonal variability.
Conservation and evaluation of
Indian genetic resources
Results of screening studies of banana cultivars/types against pests including nematodes,
diseases and abiotic stresses had been reported by many workers. Field tolerant-
/tolerant-resistant clones for one or the other pest/disease/abiotic stress, apart from
multiple resistant/tolerant ones had been reported by some of these workers. It is
saddening to note that conventional clones like Kannan, Annan and Chingan and some
types are at the verge of extinction.
Of late, genetic resources activities have received greater emphasis. Till 1988, the
Banana Research Station, Kannara, Kerala had assembled 135 accessions (Pushkaran et
al. 1989b) in the field genebank and were found to be in six genomic groups. It was
further extended to 212 accessions (Menon and Premalatha 1996). The NBPGR regional
station at Vellanikkara in Kerala has a collection of 396 accessions, apart from 13 wild
types. Out of these, 257 are characterised and are found to be in seven genomic groups:
AA, AB, AAA, AAB, ABB, AAAA and ABBB (Amalraj et al. 1996). The Indian Institute of
Horticultural Research (IIHR) and the Agricultural University of Tamil Nadu and
Karnataka have their own banana germplasm collections. National Research Center on
Banana (NRCB), Trichy, Tamil Nadu under Indian Council of Agricultural Research
(ICAR) has a field genebank collection of 587 accessions (Singh et al. 1996).
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