Scientist cautions farmers on toxic plants

Vigil must be stepped up to prevent a few exotic banana plants, which were highly disease prone, said Nicolas Roux, Senior Scientist and Project Coordinator, Genetic Resources and Genomics, Bioversity International, on Saturday.

Speaking at the inauguration of a one-week workshop on “Musa Germplasm: Identification Towards Optimising Use” here, he said the tendency of relying on one or a few genetically similar cultivars of a group would always carry high risk. It had been well illustrated by the ‘Fusarium’ wilt epidemic on Gros Michel banana in several countries. It caused an estimated financial loss of around $ 2.3 billion to the banana industry.

The figure would be even greater if costs were included on the scale of unemployment, displacement of farmers, unrealised income, and expenditure to them in the affected regions.

Although India was not affected by the epidemic, Mr. Roux said there was a need to protect banana crops against diseases.

If the varieties were unchecked and unprotected, it would cause huge financial loss to the growers. The disease-prone exotic varieties should not be allowed. Similarly, the current diversity of Musa, both wild and cultivate, must be explored to broaden the genetic base of wild and edible diploids used in breeding programmes.

It would increase the crops’ diversity in farmers’ fields. It would ensure buoyancy in banana production systems. The use of

Musa genetic diversity would provide the best insurance against current and future threats of vulnerable banana dependent populations.

Stating that the country had excellent potential to step up the horticulture production, N.K. Krishnakumar, Deputy Director-General, ICAR, New Delhi, said many technologies had come up in the recent past to minimise water and fertilizer usage as well as increasing the productivity.

Theni region in Tamil Nadu had become a model on using technical knowhow to increase banana production. More and more farmers were coming forward to shun the traditional cultivation of banana.

The farmers had started reaping the benefits of adapting to the modern method of cultivation.

M.M. Mustafa, Director, National Research Centre for Banana, Tiruchi, said the workshop would address the most urgent needs of Musa collection curators on the management of banana and associated information. It would review the current practical and common description methodology with the Taxonomic Reference Collection Project (TRCP) partners and resource persons.