The three-day National Banana festival, with technical sessions and an exhibition focussing on improving India’s position as a global leader in banana cultivation and supply chain, commenced at the Agricultural College and Research Institute (ACRI) here on Friday in the presence of five State ministers, senior government officials, farmers and industry leaders.
Inaugurating the function, R. Doraikkannu, Agriculture Minister, pointed out how the State had been a front-runner in banana cultivation by contributing 24 % of the country’s 2.91 crore metric tonne production. He added that while the average productivity across the country was 37 metric tonne per hectare, certain pockets in Theni district in Tamil Nadu were recording a productivity of even 100 metric tonne.
Pointing out that India, however, lagged behind many countries in terms of banana export, he expressed hope that the festival would equip the farmers to export more.
Shakil P. Ahammed, Joint Secretary, Department of Agriculture Cooperation and Farmers Welfare, Government of India, in his speech, stressed the importance of value addition post-harvesting and how countries like Brazil were using it effectively.
“For instance, if a farmer gets ₹ 30 per kilogram of banana at the farm gate level, they can make around ₹ 200 per kilogram if they convert it into banana powder and ₹ 250 to ₹ 300 if they sell it as banana chips,” he said.
Stating that India stood behind countries like Indonesia and Costa Rica in terms of productivity, he said that the festival, by bringing together farmers, research institutions and government, would help in improving the situation.
Gagandeep Singh Bedi, Agriculture Production Commissioner and Principal Secretary, Department of Agriculture, Tamil Nadu, highlighted the schemes implemented by the State to boost banana cultivation, which included ₹ 1 crore allocation for encouraging cultivation of hill banana and other traditional varieties, and a subsidy of ₹ 35,500 per hectare for tissue culture banana cultivation.
“Importantly, the State government had recently announced ₹ 398 crore for supply chain management, which will involve setting up of cold storage and related infrastructure to help the farmers,” he said.
Other ministers, including ‘Dindigul’ C. Sreenivasan, K.A. Sengottaiyan, ‘Sellur’ K. Raju and R.B. Udhayakumar, who spoke at the function, highlighted various measures like the kudi maramath scheme that were being implemented by the State for the welfare of the farmers.
Later, the Ministers inaugurated an exhibition consisting of research institutes and stalls from companies in the field of agricultural technology.
Hundreds of farmers from Madurai and surrounding regions took part on the first day of the festival. Organisers said that farmers from 14 States were participating in the festival.
K. Veera Raghava Rao, Collector, K. Ramasamy, Vice-Chancellor, Tamil Nadu Agricultural University, S. Nagoor Ali Jinnah, Chief General Manager, National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development, A.P. Karuppiah, President, Tamil Nadu Banana Growers Federation, P. Ravichandran, Chairman, Tamil Nadu State Council, Confederation of Indian Industry (CII), R. Dinesh, Deputy Chairman, CII Southern Region, took part in the inaugural function.
The festival was organised as a joint initiative of CII in association with Union and State governments.