Going bananas over a humble fruit

Kalliyoor grama panchayat will host the National Banana Festival from February 17 to 21. During the five days, Vellayani temple ground will witness exhibition, seminar, farmers meet, training programmes, buyer-seller meet, documentary shows, cultural programmes etc

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Banana can be called a staple fruit for us. Available throughout the year we have accepted it as part of our diet and our culture. The district boasts a maximum number of bananas available in the market. Yet the demand is so much we have to get more fruit from the neighbouring states.
Farmers in the district are increasingly cultivating plantains as it has proven to be a stable crop. A trip to Neyyatinkara is a must if one wants to see the plantain revolution.

Kalliyoor-Venganoor belt is especially known for plantain cultivation. The vast plantations were once paddy fields.  Sanghamaithri Farmers Producer Company is made up mostly of farmers cultivating banana, vegetables and mangoes. At least 6,000 plantain farmers are part of the organisation. Among them, there are farmers who grow more than 130 varieties of bananas.

Celebrating Banana

Kalliyoor Grama Panchayat will host the National Banana Festival from February 17 to 21. During the five days, Vellayani temple ground will witness exhibition, seminar, farmers meet, training programmes, buyer-seller meet, documentary shows, cultural programmes, photography contest and various other competitions. NBF would showcase the wide diversity of bananas in India and the varied uses of this unique fruit. A large number of banana farmers, businessmen, academicians, machinery manufacturers, agro-biotech companies and researchers from around the country are expected to participate.  

“This is the first time a national level festival is being organised in a rural setting. The purpose is to bring the latest developments and research information to the farming community,” said Suresh Gopi, MP, and organising committee chairman, NBF 2018.  The MP, who adopted Kalliyoor under the Prime Minister’s Sansad Adarsh Gram Yojana (SAGY), vouched the farmers have already made a name for themselves by strictly adhering to organic farming and have been harvesting pesticide-free vegetables and fruits.

The NBF will be organised by Centre for Innovation in Science & Social Action from February 17 to 21, 2018. The focal theme of the festival would be ‘Conserving Diversity, Preserving Identity and Promoting Value Addition’.

Apart from the experts from Kerala, scientists and experts from Tamil Nadu Agricultural University, BARC, National Research Centre for Bananas-Trichy, Indian Institute for Horticulture Research- Bengaluru, Central Institute for Agriculture Engineering, Coimbatore, JNU Delhi, Assam Agricultural University, Gandhigram Rural Institute - Madurai, Mahatma Gandhi Institute for Rural Industrialization, YSR Horticultural University, Andhra Pradesh; ICAR Research Complex for NEH region, Meghalaya, CSIR and APEDA will give talks.