TN produces 28 pc of nation’s bananas: study

Chennai:

Tamil Nadu is the leading banana producer in the country and accounts for a share of 27.71 per cent of nation’s produce, according to a feasibility report for Setting up Integrated Cold Chain for Banana in Tamil Nadu.

The state produces 8,253 tonnes of bananas and is way ahead of second ranked Maharashtra, which produces 4,303 tonnes with a national share of 14.45 per cent, the report prepared by CII said.

The report calling for government interventions said that the state produced more bananas than many parts of the country but the post production systems do not follow any cold chain systems as in the developed economies.

The report puts the post harvest losses to 20-25 per cent and states that poor harvesting technique, unhygienic field handling, poor transportation, lack of packaging and cold chain are some of the issues that need to be addressed.

While suggesting cold chain for banana supply chain be started in Tamil Nadu, the report said a pilot project in one of the high density zones be taken up immediately and consider Tirichirapally as a pilot location for this initiative. It said Public Private Partnership model can effectively be used for balance funding and efficient operation.

The report also identifies six zones where the cold chain infrastructure could be set up. These include Erode belt (Erode, Dharmapuri and salem), Coimbatore belt (Coimbatore, The Nilgiris and Dindigul), Thoothkudi belt (Thoothkudi, Tirunelveli and Kanyakumari), Theni belt (Theni, Virudhnagar, Madurai and Ramanathapuram), Tiruchy belt (Tirucy, karur, Tirupur, Pudukottai, Thanjavur, Cuddalore and Namakkal) and Thiruvanamalai belt (Thiruvanamalai, Thiruvallur, Vellore, Kancheepuram, Villupuram and Krishnagiri).

The report said that if all the banana produced in the state are covered by intervention, then the total benefit to the state could be approximately Rs 4,000 crore in an year. “This is the magnitude of the potential that exists to be realized and farmers share could be as much as Rs 600 crore annually on a recurring basis,” the report added.