Banana Farmers to Banana Experts: A Novel Initiative By ICAR-NRC On Banana

With the objective to provide necessary Banana information to the farmers and making them experts in its cultivation, the ICAR-National Research Centre on Banana, Tiruchirappalli, Tamil Nadu has initiated an endeavor on the “Banana Farmers to Banana Experts (BF-BE)”.

Practical & Theory Components on Best Practices in Banana Cultivation

The initiative has been undertaken in collaboration with the Agricultural Technology Management Agency - Support to State Extension Programs for Extension Reforms Scheme (ATMA-SSEPERS).

Dr. S. Uma, Director, ICAR-NRC on Banana, Tiruchirappalli & Course Director underlined the conceptualization of the initiative with the amalgamation of both practical and theory components on the best practices in Banana cultivation. Dr. Uma stated that the main objective of the initiative is to help the farmers understand the science behind each cultivation practices which they could apply on the field not only for Banana, but for other crops also.

Total of 440 Farmers Were Trained

The farmers of 11 Districts, viz., Villupuram, Kanyakumari, Chengalpattu, Thiruvarur, Dindigul, Ranipet, Pudukkottai, Nilgiri, Thanjavur, Karur and Theni of Tamil Nadu were provided with the continuous hands-on-training programs for the duration of 1 / 2 3 days. A total of 440 farmers were trained during the period of December to January.

The participants were apprised about the Banana improvement, production, protection, post-harvest and value-addition. All the Scientists and technicians of different sections of the ICAR-NRCB handled the training classes for all the eleven districts’ farmers.