Banana ripening moisture center increased, yield decreased

Only 5 years ago, the banana production area of ​​Kanchanpur reached 600 hectares. Now it has decreased to around 150. Because of this, the bananas needed here are imported from India. "Now is the time of banana shortage, and now the cultivation has decreased," said Saund, who is also the president of the Banana Production Farmers Group. "Our production will not be enough until June." Imports will decrease.

When the production of bananas increased in the district, the farmers of the area had started a movement to stop the imports from India. Farmers threw bananas on the road. But now bananas are being imported from India through various channels.

Lately, moisture centers have also been established in the district for producing plants from tissue culture to cooking. But as the production is decreasing, bananas are not available in the moisture center as required. Because of this, they are cooking only half of their capacity. At present half a dozen banana ripening moisture centers are operating in Kanchanpur. Chisyan centers have been established with grants from the state and federal governments at the local level.

'Only four/five hundred dozen are ripening in a day,' Arjun Jethara, a banana grower of Krishnapur municipality-5 Gularia, said, 'This is also imported from India.' He has cultivated bananas on about 40 bighas. But now it is not produced.

In Kanchanpur, bananas are cultivated in areas such as Bhimdatta Municipality, Krishnapur, Belauri, Punarvas and Beldandi. Currently, planting of banana plants is being done across the district. Plants produced from tissue culture of nine species are planted here. Farmers say that the plants produced by this technology give good yield. In the past, banana plants used to come from Chitwan. Before that, rice was planted. The yield from plants planted with rice was less.