Bananas and Food Security - Bioversity International

224 Les productions bananières / Bananas and food security – Session 1
hands per bunch has to be regulated to achieve the required length and diameter of
finger. Maturity time has to be regulated and bunches should be free from blemishes
caused by flower thrips and disease.
Utmost care has to be taken at the time of harvest and transportation to
packinghouse where de-handing is done and fruits are pre-cooled in running water for
10-15 minutes. At de-handing stage, hands not meeting the standards are discarded. The
pre-cooled hands are again graded to suite to 13.5kg packing. The graded fruits are
packed as full hand, half hand (5 fruits) and fingers using polythene sheets and
cardboard boxes. The boxes are transported under refrigerated condition at 12-15 o C.
Before despatch of packed boxes, random packing are also checked for quality
standards. After reaching the destination, fruits passes through ripening chamber before
being displayed for sale.
Major constraints and opportunities of
banana cultivation in India
Growing appreciation for banana for nutritional and medicinal values has attracted
global interest for banana research and as a result, banana has emerged as priority crop.
Availability of wide genetic diversity, source of resistance, varying production systems,
network of co-ordinating centres are the major strengths for improving the production
and productivity. Various growing systems under different climatic conditions provide
strength for extended harvest of the crop round the year for exploring the possibilities of
export to Far East countries. NRCB was established in 1993 in an attempt to strengthen
the research capabilities to tackle the production constraints.
Constraints
Although India is largest producer of banana in the world, and has achieved very high
productivity in few states through the adoption of high density planting and improved
production technology, quality grade of banana produced are far from satisfaction.
Regional problems have been addressed through AICRP that has brought substantial
improvement in production but there is still a wide gap for productivity among banana
growing states owing to regional preference for cultivars and many biotic and abiotic
constraints of production. No concerted efforts have been made for improvement,
although diversity and source of desirable traits are available owing to the complexity of
breeding in banana. Postharvest handling and processing have also not received
sufficient emphasis.
Pests, nematodes and diseases added with abiotic factors viz. salinity are major
constraints in banana production. As discussed, losses caused by these biotic stresses
are very high. They are a real threat to banana production in the country although
considerable improvement has been achieved in their management. However, chemical
control has caused considerable pollution and is not eco-friendly warranting the need for
the development of cultivars which can sustain the losses caused by the biotic factors.