The Hindu : Tamil Nadu / Tiruchi News : NABARD project to promote banana-based products

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Friday, Dec 24, 2004

Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu - Tiruchi

NABARD project to promote banana-based products

By Our Special Correspondent

TIRUCHI, DEC. 23. The National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD) has sanctioned a `Banana-Based Products Cluster' for the Anthanallur block in Tiruchi district, the first of its kind in the country, with a view to ensuring `rural industrialisation'.

The project will pave way for production of value-added products to enable farmers get a better price for their produce.

It will be implemented by the NABARD for three years from 2004-05 with the assistance of the National Research Centre for Banana (NRCB) at Thayanur, near here, the Tiruchi District Central Cooperative Bank (TDCCB), and a few commercial banks.

Tiruchi tops list

The district potential survey recently conducted by the NABARD under the District Rural Industries Project (DRIP) revealed a vast scope for the trade as Tiruchi topped the list in the country in banana cultivation — 8,416 hectares with annual production of 3.97 lakh tonnes — and possessed good market potential for banana products.

The plan will cover Mullai Karumbur, Ettarai and Vayalur in the Anthanallur block, which account for about 700 acres under banana. The main crop here is `nendran' which has more fibre content and is ideal for making chips. The programme will initially focus on five value-added products — banana fig, banana chips, banana sauce, banana fruit pickle and banana flower `thokku'— as the technology is simple and the by-products can be marketed easily, the Assistant General Manager, NABARD, P. Selvaraj, said.

Banana fibre

Mr. Selvaraj said the banana fibre requirement of the Coir Board in Kerala was estimated at about 6 tonnes a day.

As treatment of coconut coir was causing pollution, the Coir Board switched to banana fibre.

He said the raw material for nendran chips was being procured from Tiruchi and the end product was brought here for marketing.

There was also good demand for banana fig, thokku, pickle both inside and outside the country.

Training for farmers

About 300 families were involved in banana cultivation in the project villages.

Under the cluster programme, training would be imparted in the preparation of the five value-added products adopting latest technology suggested by the NRCB.

The trained farmers would be initiated into simple processing with low investment ventures till they get convinced of the profitability of the project.

Advanced training would be imparted in the second phase.

To help farmers, the NABARD would organise exhibitions, workshops and buyer-seller meets to popularise the products and identify effective marketing avenues.

Mr. Selvaraj said the NABARD team had completed discussions with NRCB scientists on the project and modalities. The TDCCB, as a nodal agency, would implement all promotional programmes.

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