THIRUVANANTHAPURAM:
The five-day National Banana Festival 2018, to begin on February 17 at the Vellayani temple grounds in Kalliyoor Grama Panchayat will have the unique distinction of being a big national level event organized at a rural village.
The scale of NBF 2018 would be large that participation of research organizations, academic institutions and renowned scientists has been ensured. The NBF 2018 will bring together a large number of banana farmers, business men, academicians, machinery manufacturers, agro biotech companies and researchers from around the country.
According to Suresh Gopi, MP, and organising committee chairman, NBF 2018, “this is the first time a national level festival is being organised in a rural setting. The purpose is to bring developments and research information closer to the farming community, who have already made a name for themselves by strictly adhering to organic farming and have been harvesting pesticide-free vegetables and fruits, at Kalliyoor Grama Panchayat.”
Further, the festival will also prove helpful in such a way that new developments and research in banana cultivation would be passed on to the banana farmers in alll of Kerala and southern Tamil Nadu, he said. The Kalliyoor Grama Panchayat, which has been adopted by Suresh Gopi,
MP, under the Prime Minister’s Sansad Adarsh Gram Yojana (SAGY), has already carved a niche in the agriculture scenario for its intensive farming of diversified varieties of banana.
We expect more such events to be organized in villages away from the city bustle so that the farmers would be able to directly interact, learn and adopt the new age research oriented faring methods in a larger scale. The National Banana Festival would do regular follow ups so that the information and development aspects prove to be of help for a longer term among the farmers of Kalliyoor, and also the end users of the agri-products that are cultivated here, he added.
The National Banana Festival (NBF-2018), will be organised by the Thiruvananthapuram-based Centre for Innovation in Science & Social Action (CISSA) from February 17 to 21, 2018. The focal theme of the festival would be Conserving Diversity, Preserving Identity and Promoting Value Addition”.
Meanwhile, the sub themes would be: Understanding, conserving and using banana genetic diversity; Impact of climate change on banana productivity, pests and diseases; Medicinal and nutritional importance of banana; Biofortification; Value addition of banana and by products; Organic bananas challenges and opportunities; GM bananas – exciting opportunities or disaster; Crop and pest management; Soil Health Management; Tissue culture banana and quality planting materials; Post-harvest issues, alternative uses, marketing and commercialization; Banana for ornamental purposes; Wild banana species in India; Emerging technologies and mechanization in Banana sector; and Indigenous Technical Knowledge (ITK) in Banana.
The Kalliyoor Grama Panchayat, Regional Centre of Expertise (RCE) acknowledged by United Nations University; ICAR-National Centre for
Banana, Tiruchirapalli; UNESCO New Delhi, Central and State Government institutions involved in Banana Research and Promotion, as well as NGOs working in this sector, will collaborate with CISSA to organise the mega festival at the sprawling ground in Kalliyoor Grama Panchayat.
The National Banana Festival 2018 will also look to illustrate how research can help in using banana diversity to increase options for both small-scale farmers and consumers.
According to Dr C S Ravindran, Secretary General, NBF 2018, “the focal theme of the National Banana Festival 2018 would be Conserving Diversity, Preserving Identity, and Promoting Value Addition. The five-day festival, being planned as an educational and enjoyable event, will include a National Seminar, Exhibition, Training Programmes, Farmers’ Meet and a host of other activities.
Participants will be able to engage in the building of networking and productive collaborations, apart from updating themselves with the latest knowledge and trends in the banana sector”.
Apart from the experts from Kerala, scientists and experts from Tamil Nadu Agricultural University, Bhabha Atomic Research Centre (BARC), National Research Centre for Bananas-Trichy, Indian Institute for Horticulture Research- Bangalore, 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 be delivering lectures.
These institutions will also have their stalls at the event. India ranks first in global banana production with 18% of global production and
accounts for 36.6% of the total fruit production in the country. Banana and plantain are widely grown in Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Gujarat, Andhra
Pradesh, Karnataka, Kerala, Orissa, Bihar, eastern U.P., West Bengal and North Eastern states. The banana industry provides employment for thousands of people. It is also a fact that only 1% of the banana produced in the country is exported.
Organic banana, it has been revealed, is an emerging sector in the global trade. The National Banana Festival 2018 would showcase the wide diversity of bananas in India and the varied uses of this unique fruit. The five day festival will include National exhibition, national seminar, farmers meet, training programmes, buyer seller meet, documentary shows, cultural programmes, photography contest and various other competitions.
