An exhibition on banana and banana value-added products held at the National Research Centre for Banana in Tiruchi on Tuesday.
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.
G. Byju, Director, ICAR–Central Tuber Crops Research Institute (CTCRI), Thiruvananthapuram, observed that banana contributed nearly 10% of the total horticultural production in the country. In the current scenario, nutritional security was more important to reduce malnutrition, and horticultural crops played a vital role in nutrient supplementation, he said.
Moni Madaswamy, former Director General, National Informatics Centre (NIC), New Delhi, while highlighting the role of digital networks and ICT in transforming agriculture, emphasised the need for block-level IT centres, especially in tribal and dryland areas, and promoting one agri-tech start-up per village panchayat.
About 200 beneficiaries were distributed free banana planting material, inputs, and farm implements such as spades and crowbars under the Scheduled Caste Sub-Plan (SCSP) scheme during the event. An exhibition showcasing various banana technologies and products was organised.
A Memorandum of Agreement (MoA) was signed with the Vivekananda Trust for implementing a development programme of tribal farmers under the Ainthinai Mission Project, in collaboration with the Tamil Nadu Government Tribal Welfare Department.
R. Viswanathan, former Director, ICAR–Indian Institute of Sugarcane Research (IISR), Lucknow, M. Mayilvaganan, and V. Kumar, Principal Scientists, ICAR–NRCB, spoke.
Published – December 23, 2025 06:22 pm IST
