National conference on Banana from Oct 25

Tiruchirapalli, Sep 18 (UNI) The National Research Centre for Banana (NRCB) here will organise a two-day national conference on 'production and utilisation of banana for economic livelihood and nutritional security' from October 25.

In a press release here today, NRCB Director M M Mustaffa said 12 scientific sessions comprising oral and poster presentations highlighting the recent developments in banana and plantain.

As part of the conference, an exhibition would be organised to highlight new trends in research, tissue culture bananas, fertigation and drip irrigation besides session for better interaction among the farmers, planners, policy makers and scientific community.

He said a trip would be arranged for the farmers to visit the fields to demonstrate high density planting, organic farming among other things besides a visit to smallscale processing units to provide opportunities for budding and established entrepreneurs to share their experience.

The proposed conference was aimed at bringing together researchers, development officials of the government departments, progressive farmers, entrepreneurs, exporters and agri-businessmen to discuss various production constraints and to formulate future stategies for boosting production and productivity of banana and plantain in India.

The conference, jointly organised by NRCB and The Association for the Improvement in Production and Utilisation of Banana (AIPUB), which represent the Indian Banana community, would be attended by about 300 delegates and 250 farmers, he added.

UNI