Bananas and Food Security - Bioversity International

Asie – Pacifique / Asia – Pacific : K. Pushkaran
requirements of the banana growers and consumers in a wide range of situations, are
available (Pushkaran et al. 1989a). This semi-perennial fruit-vegetable-food crop as a
whole has a variety of uses.
Systems of banana growing in peninsular India are very diverse and some of them are
very peculiar. Most of these systems have evolved through the ages to suit the specific
agro-climatic situations, requirements of the farmer, consumer and the cultivar
concerned. Its cultivation ranges from rainfed to irrigated; level land to steep hill slopes;
uplands to wetlands; low to high altitude conditions; poor to very good management as a
sole crop or in multiple cropping/mixed farming systems (Aravindakshan and Pushkaran
1996).
Production systems
The production systems involving bananas in peninsular India can be broadly grouped
into six:
• Pure crop
• Banana with intercrops
• As an intercrop
• Relay cropping
• Homesteads
• Agroforestry.
Pure crop
Mainly commercially important cultivars like Nendran (AAB), Robusta (AAA), Dwarf
Cavendish (AAA), Palayankodan/Mysore (AAB), Rasthali (AAB), Virupakshi (AAB),
Chakkarakadali (AAB) and Red Banana (AAA) are grown as pure crops, of which the
first three are not usually ratooned. This is practised mostly in irrigated uplands and in
wetlands. In well drained uplands, planting is done in pits; in wetlands, depending upon
the water table, raised beds are formed to accommodate one or two plants by taking
trenches (Varkey and Pushkaran 1992). Large circular mounds are also formed on which
plants are grown individually.
In the Central Kerala, a unique system of Nendran cultivation is practised by some
traditional farmers, known as “Kaizhakula” cultivation (Pushkaran 1996a). Here the
plants are raised with utmost personal attention from selection of sucker to harvest and
marketing of the bunch. They use mostly organic manures of specified kinds and
quantities, applied at particular times. Desuckering as and when suckers appear with
minimal disturbance to the mother plant, application of burnt/fresh soil, earthing up,
effective drainage and the peculiar method of bunch covering using dry banana leaves to
ensure the development of a golden colour are some of the special features of this
system. Strikingly better, attractive high grade bunches of 20-35 kg as against the usual
10-15 kg are obtained, to be used mainly as presents to temples, VIPs and relatives in
connection with the Onam festival (Figure 1). Such bunches may fetch exorbitant prices
773