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The sinking future of banana in Sindh
Banana is a herbaceous perennial plant with fleshy rhizomatous roots. Its plant produces sucker shoots, which give fruit once and then die. Bananas are cultivated as plantation crop and suckers are managed on an annual cycle after harvesting of the bunch.
The old sucker is cut out and a new one allowed to develop. The practice is known as ratooning. With good management a banana plantation can be maintained in cultivation for 5-10 years.
Originally, edible this fruit comes from the Indo-Malaysian region reaching to northern Australia, and was known in the Mediterranean region in the 3rd century BC. It is believed that banana was first carried to Europe in the 10th century AD. Portuguese mariners transported the plant from the west African coast to south America.
Today, banana is the premier fruit of Asia and the Pacific. It is one of the most cultivated fruits in Indonesia, Thailand, Vietnam, Philippines, Bangladesh, the South Pacific island countries, India and Pakistan. Banana also occupies an important position in the agricultural economy of Australia, Malaysia, Taiwan, Sri Lanka, and Southern China.
In Pakistan, major quantity of banana produced, which forms about 28,000 hectares, is entirely consumed by domestic market. According to “Pakistan Statistical Year Book 2001,” out of 28,000 hectares 24,000 hectares of banana is grown in Sindh province.
Banana constitutes the fourth largest fruit crop of the world following grape, citrus and apple. Unfortunately, at present, its planation is vulnerable to a number of deadly fungal and viruses. The magnitude of threat of these diseases can be gauged from a recent report published in the New Scientist magazine (refer Dawn 17, 2003) in which Emile Frison, a French scientist and the head of the Montpellier based International Net work for the Improvement of Banana and Plantain, have forewarned that the banana business could be defunk within a decade if radical measures are not taken soon.
Almost all the varieties of banana grown today are cuttings, in fact, clone of naturally mutant wild bananas discovered by early farmers about 10,000 years ago. The rare mutation caused wild bananas to grow sterile, without seeds. Those ancient farmers took cutting of the mutants, then cutting of the cuttings.
Plants use reproduction to continuously shuffle their gene pool building up variety so that part of the species will survive an otherwise deadly disease. Because sterile mutant bananas cannot breed, they do not have the protection.
Commercial banana plantations were devastated in the 50s when Panama disease slew the dominant variety, the Gros Michel. A resistant variety, the Cavendish filled the gap. In Pakistan banana was introduced in 1913 in Sindh. Among the varieties introduced Cavendish locally known as “Basrai” gave the most out standing results. At present, this very variety holds almost 98 per cent of the entire banana plantation in Sindh.
In 1969, an another variety-William hybrid was imported from Australia and was cultivated in the province but very sporadically. By 80s lower Sindh was the most productive area for cultivation in the country. However, following widespread damage of banana plantation in lower Sindh, in the early 90s, its cultivation rapidly increased in upper Sindh particularly in districts Khairpur, Naushro Feroze, Nawab Shah and Ghotki.
The significance of growth can measured from the fact that till mid the 90s, banana’s acreage, in the district Khairpur, which was hardly 5000 acres jumped to over 50000 acres. At average, it has been observed that the rate of return from an acre of bearing banana crop range between Rs60,000 and Rs120,000.
Because of such lucrative returns, banana was grown everywhere, under the date palm trees, in the flood-prone Kutcha areas besides the one which was traditionally used for cotton/wheat crops.
At present, banana plantation in upper Sindh is facing devastation by Banana Bunchy Top Virus (BBTV), the same deadly menace that damaged the lower Sindh banana crops. It must be pointed out that till last year the very menace was restricted to a few dehs in Takuka Kingri, but since timely, today almost the entire plantation area in the district is under infection of BBTV, and the worst affected areas include Kalhorho, Daro, Beli Channa, Sadarji Bhathion, Keti Ghumro, Unnar Dand, and Baharo.
Surveys carried out in the heavily affected areas reveal that almost 60 to 70 banana plants are showing apparent symptoms of BBTD and such fields are no more cost effective.
According to the banana contractors, the losses level, as a result of these infected crops, have gone as high as 80 per cent. Fearing colossal economic loss many contractors have fled from the contracts made with the banana crop owner on annual basis. This very situation, as a matter of fact, is more alarming than the very bunchy top virus. This is because majority of the banana growers are almost 100 per cent dependent on contractors for the investment required in the cultivation of this crop.
It was also found that many banana growers, whose contractor has fled leaving behind some advance against the standing crop, are relunctant to invest anymore, and have reported to their scribe to clear the field from the infected banana crop so that cultivation of some other crop can be carried out.
Suggestions
1. To go ahead with fresh banana cultivation growers may be persuaded to switch over to bunchy top virus free saplings (suckers) developed with tissue culture technology. However, since such suckers too are not BBTV resistant, plantation area should be away from the present infected zone.
2. Cost of banana suckers developed with tissue culture technology is available for Rs15 per sucker which is very high for hard pressed banana growers. Institutes possessing full-fledged tissue culture centres, such as HEJ Research Institute of Chemistry at the University of Karachi, and Pakistan Agricultural Research Council (PARC) in Islamabad, should take steps to bring down the cost of banana suckers in greater national interest.
The writer
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