NRCB to promote plantain crops

Tiruchirapalli, Tamil Nadu June 20 (UNI) National Research Centre for Banana (NRCB), the premier Banana Research Centre under the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) was working on promoting two varieties of high-yielding plantain crops in the country.

Talking to newspersons at Podavur village, near here today NRCB Director M M Mustafa said the two varieties CRBP-39 and BITA-2, both resistant to sigatoka disease were derived from Camaroon and Nigeria.

He said the varieties would be suitable for backyard cultivation or with slight modification in the production system, he added.

Dr Mustafa said they could be easily accommodated to Tamil Nadu system of cultivation.

These two varieties suitable for cooking and chips industry was now undergoing multi-location trials and confirmatory results were awaited, he said. It will take another one and half years for introducing these varieties with new names for commercial production, he added.

The Director said NRCB had collected 14 varieties of Banana wild species and identified three varieties in north-eastern States.

He said Banana accessions were conserred and maintained at NRCB's field gene bank. NRCB has the largest Banana and Plantain collection in the South-East Asia, he added.

Dr Mustafa said with the support from financial agencies, there is a scope for processing Banana Industry to develop and attain a level of 16 per cent from the present five per cent in the near future.

The NRCB has developed a technology for export of Banana to the Gulf and European markets, he said. The Centre has signed an MoU with International Network for the Improvement of Banana Plantain (INIBAP), France.

He said the Centre is involved in the networking of Banana Research and Training in the South-East Asian countries.

NRCB Scientists will attend an international symposia on Banana to be held in Brazil during September-October, he added.

UNI GSM SRS KP1910