Rural Kalliyoor is all set to host the National Banana Festival next month.
To be organised by the city-based Centre for Innovation in Science and Social Action in association with various organisations and institutions, the five-day festival will be held at the Vellayani temple grounds from February 17.
With the focal theme of ‘Conserving diversity, preserving identity, and promoting value addition,’ the festival will bring together banana farmers, businessmen, academics, machinery manufacturers, agro-biotech companies, and researchers from across the country.
Suresh Gopi, MP, who is also the organising committee chairman, said at a press meet here on Wednesday that the festival would provide an opportunity for farmers to interact with experts in the field of agriculture and become more aware of the prospects of banana cultivation. It would help bring development and research information closer to the farming community, he said.
The festival will also help illustrate how research can help use banana diversity to increase the options for small-scale farmers and consumers.
Kalliyoor grama panchayat, which has been adopted by the MP under the Prime Minister’s Sansad Adarsh Gram Yojana (SAGY), has made a name for itself for intensive farming of diversified varieties of banana.
The festival will include a national seminar, exhibitions, training programmes, farmers’ and buyer-seller meets, documentary shows, and cultural programmes.
