The Banana Bank set up by Babu Parambath under the Niravu Farmer Producer Company in Vengeri here is now spreading its wings to 200 houses across the district thanks to support from the National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (Nabard).
Based on a project submitted by Mr. Parambath to Nabard, each of the houses will get five different varieties of banana saplings, besides technical assistance and training to grow them.
Mr. Parambath had started the banana bank as a hobby during the lockdown, collecting and growing different varieties on a 10-cent plot near his house. By the end of the second lockdown, there were more than 50 varieties, and now, there are 107 varieties of banana plants, including seven foreign varieties and at least one each from almost every State.
The plan is to distribute saplings of 30 varieties, including 15 indigenous ones of Kerala, among the 200 households, in the first phase. Of the 200 households, 50 have been identified in Vadakara Municipality, around 25 each in Unnikulam and Peruvayal grama panchayats, and the rest in the Kozhikode Corporation.
The sapling varieties given away to each household will be properly recorded so as to track their movement and source them, if necessary, at a later stage. The farmers will be trained at the Banana Research Station at Kannali in Thrissur under Kerala Agricultural University.
A monitoring committee consisting of the Nabard Deputy General Manager, Lead Bank Manager, Haritha Keralam Mission District Coordinator, and Planning Board Member Manalil Mohanan, besides two farmers from Niravu, has been constituted to facilitate the activities of the bank. The project shall be extended to 1,000 houses at a later stage, if the first phase is successful. Nabard spends around ₹2.5 lakh per farmer under the project.
“This is an attempt to revive our lost banana varieties and to protect the biodiversity associated with banana plantations. We encourage carbon-neutral farming in which burning of plant parts is not allowed,” Mr. Parambath said, adding that the project would ensure a confluence of traditional and modern methods of cultivation.
