Goa: Farmers use nylon net bags to protect bananas

PANAJI: Indians are synonymous with ‘jugaad’ and local farmers from Goa are living up to the tradition. In a bid to protect their fruits from frequent monkey attacks, some of the state’s farmers have started using nylon net bags to cover the bananas bunches growing in their orchards. Earlier, they would bag the unripe fruit in opaque mesh bags.
“The material that the bags are made of is generally used in polyhouses, but farmers are being innovative. Shirsai farmers have been bagging their banana bunches with this material for a while. Taking inspiration from them, we are also doing the same. The material is reusable, and very sturdy,” horticulturist Sachin Tendulkar said.
The nylon bags also facilitate better aeration as compared to the mesh bags and help individual bananas to develop to their full potential, farmers said.
“When we used the opaque mesh bag, we had to check whether the fruits are ready for harvest or not. The nylon bag, however, is see through. The bunches can thus be observed from the ground and checked if they are ready for harvest,” they added. The 50cm wide and 60cm long bag is available at Goa Bagayatdar outlets.
Talking about the issue of animal attacks on fruit trees, farmers said that monkeys usually break the bunches with near-mature bananas and avoid those that are either unripe or tender ripe.
“The issue of monkey attacks is prevalent, especially at the foothills of the Western Ghats. They arrive in packs and have adapted themselves to our timings very well. They frequent the place every eight to ten days and come only during lunch time or early morning, which is when the farmer is not present in the orchard,” Tendulkar said.