KOCHI: BE prepared to pay through your nose the next time you wish to enjoy some homegrown bananas, especially Nendran.
The long, hard summer and insufficient rainfall have sent banana production in the state into a tailspin to the dismay of cultivators. When productivity of most crops, including coconut, slid drastically over the past few years, banana recorded upward growth until inclement weather played spoilsport.
Banana production dropped from 1,292.41 tonnes in 2015-16 to 1,218.15 tonnes in the last fiscal, says statistics with the Union Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare. On the other hand, national production clocked 30,439.33 tonnes in the previous fiscal compared to 29,134 tonnes in 2015-16.
Accounting for 51 per cent of the total cultivation, the Nendran variety has been hit really hard. It will cost dear during the next festival season when its demand peaks.
Last season, it was priced at Rs 56 a kilo and is expected to clock an increase of 10 to 20 per cent this year. Farmers see its cultivation as more promising as it can be harvested within 10 to 12 months. This is a big attraction for small farmers as it fetches them payoffs from time to time.
Experts say the slump in production will reflect on economic growth and may have a cascading effect on other crops as well. P B Pushpalatha, head of the Banana Research Station at Kannara, Thrissur, told Express lack of rain and an extended drought have significantly depleted the water table affecting production.
If there is good rainfall next year, the decline can be arrested. The Farm Information Bureau’s data says the area under cultivation in the state rose to 1.25 lakh hectares in 2015 at an average productivity rate of about 8.5-9 tonnes per hectare.
According to the Kerala Horticulture Mission data, the state has been witnessing a resurgence in banana cultivation with acreage gradually moving upwards in the past decade.
On the other hand, area under cultivation of other crops like paddy and coconut has diminished considerably.