A new disease-resistant and high yielding banana variety, Kaveri Poovan, developed by the Indian Council of Agricultural Research’s National Research Centre for Banana (NRCB), Tiruchi, is likely to be released by Pongal, according to its Director R. Selvarajan.
Disclosing this at the Farmers Day and Banana festival held at NRCB, Mr. Selvarajan said the new variety was resistant to virus attacks and offered up to 25% higher yield than the existing varieties. “The variety has been developed after 20 years of research. Once the variety is officially released, about 40,000 suckers will be distributed to farmers.”
Further, NRCB was in the process of developing three more banana varieties and they would be released by August next year. It had submitted a proposal to take up a major research project, in association with the Indian Space Research Organisation, on the scope of staggering banana cultivation in Tiruchi region so that banana growers were not affected by price fluctuations due to a glut in the market, Dr. Selvarajan said.
He urged banana farmers to take up integrated farming and focus on utilising the banana crop fully to produce by-products to augment their income. The NRCB had developed 60 products from banana, and farmers should make use of the technologies, he added.
