Banana

Scientific Name:

Musa sp.

History of Banana:

Bananas trace their roots lower back to the jungles of Malaysia, Indonesia, the Philippines, and northerly Australia. They had been in cultivation for the reason that time of recorded history and are referred to in historic Hindu, Chinese, Greek, and Roman texts.
The first Europeans to refer to bananas were the armies of Alexander the exquisite at some stage in their conquest of India in 327 B.C.
Nowadays, the banana is the foremost fruit of Asia and the Pacific.
It's by far one of the most cultivated culmination in Indonesia, Thailand, Vietnam, Philippines, Bangladesh, the South Pacific island nations, India, and Pakistan.
Banana also occupies a critical function inside the agricultural financial system of Australia, Malaysia, Taiwan, Sri Lanka, and Southern China.

Importance:

Bananas are an important crop in Pakistan and play a significant role in the country's agricultural economy.
Bananas are widely cultivated in the country, particularly in the Sindh and Punjab regions, and are a major source of income for many small-scale farmers. In recent years, there has been increasing interest in the research and development of bananas in Pakistan, to improve the quality of the fruit and increase yields.
This includes research in areas such as breeding and genetics, disease control, post-harvest management, and sustainable agriculture practices.
The development of new and improved banana varieties, as well as the adoption of best practices in production and management, have the potential to contribute to the growth of the banana industry in Pakistan.
Banana is the primary fruit crop of Pakistan. Its miles grew on 34,800 hectares with a production of 154,800 tons.
It is in particular grown in Sindh province where the soil and climatic conditions are favorable for its successful cultivation. The entire percentage of Sindh province by myself in its cultivation is 87%.

Major Varieties of banana grown in Sindh:

Some of the most common varieties include:

Cavendish: This is a sweet, creamy, and firm variety of bananas that is widely cultivated in Sindh. It is one of the most popular varieties in the international market and is favored for its long shelf life.
Lacatan: This variety of bananas is also known for its sweet taste and is commonly grown in Sindh. It is medium in size and has yellow skin with creamy flesh.
PisangMas: This is a small, sweet, and aromatic variety of bananas that is popular in Sindh. It has a yellow skin with a delicate flavor and is used in many local dishes and desserts.
Nendran: This is a large, starchy variety of bananas that are commonly grown in Sindh. It is typically used for cooking purposes, such as making banana chips, and is also used to make traditional sweets.

Globally grown Varieties of Banana:

Many varieties of bananas are grown and consumed globally. Here are 15 of the most common ones:

Cavendish
Lady Finger
Plantain
Red Banana
B-10
Dwarf Cavendish
Nyali
Pisang Raja
Mysore
Chinese Yellow
Cardaba
Gran Nain
Safed Velchi
Williams Hybrid
Monthan

The growth cycle of Banana:

Scientifically classified in the genus Musa, bananas are rapid-growing massive herbs from the same family as lilies and orchids. They're the biggest plants in the world without a woody stem like that of a tree trunk.

A cultivated banana plant does not grow from seed, but alternatively from a bulb-like structure known as a corm. The “trunk” of the plant, known as the “pseudo stem,” rises from the corm and is made from sheaths of overlapping leaves tightly wrapped around every different like celery stalks. Emerging from the middle of the pseudo stem, 4-15 frond-like leaves unfurl at a charge of 1 consistent with a week in best situations because the plant grows. The leaves increase upward and outward, forming vast glossy blades up to 9 feet (2.7 m) lengthy and a couple of feet (0.6 m) extensive.

Once the plant has produced a positive quantity of leaves, the flowering stem, known as the “inflorescence,” also grows up through the pseudo stem. In the beginning, it is a big tapered purplish bud. As the bud opens, corporations of tubular white plant life are found. Both male and lady plant life are present, and the fruit develops from the females without pollination. Because the younger bananas develop, they resemble slender inexperienced “palms.” A cluster of mature fruit becomes a “hand,” and beneath the weight of the bananas, the stem bends down closer to the ground. As bananas ripen, they flip from green to yellow or crimson depending on the variety. . A unmarried banana plant can produce 100-300 individual fruits, and may reach a height of more than 30 feet (9m).

Climate and Temperature Requirements:

The major banana-developing regions of the world are geographically situated among the equator and latitudes 20 degrees North and 20 degrees South.
Conditions in this location are specifically tropical, with temperature fluctuations from day to night and from summer season to winter being relatively small.
Banana is basically a moist tropical plant, coming up properly in regions with a temperature range of 10° C to 40° C and an average of 23° C.
In cooler weather the period is extended, sucker manufacturing is affected and bunches are smaller. The boom of the banana plant responds quickly, inside a count number of an hour or two to adjustments in air temperature. All increase ceases as soon because the temperature of the encompassing air falls beneath 11° C.

Humidity and Wind Velocity Requirements:

A humidity of at least 60 percent or extra is most desirable. Sturdy winds, greater than four m/sec, vicinity foremost purpose of crop loss because of the pseudo stems being blown down.
Beneath high wind situations, windbreaks are suitable so that you can banana plants from damages caused by excessive wind velocity.
Wind pace in decrease Sindh is a notable hassle, as plenty as 15-20% plus losses are determined. To be able to save bananas from excessive wind velocities windbreaks are often planted around banana fields to offer a little protection from heavy wind.

Soil Requirements:

Bananas can develop from the poorest to the richest type of soil with various fulfillment.
The soil should have true drainage, good enough fertility, and moisture.
Deep, rich loamy, and salty clay loam soil with a pH of 6-7. Five is most desired for banana cultivation.
Ill-drained, poorly aerated, and nutritionally deficient soils are not suitable for bananas.
Excessive clayey, Sandy soil, Saline soil, and Calcareous soil are not appropriate for Banana cultivation.
Averted soil of low-lying regions, very sandy & heavy black cotton with ill drainage.

Fertilizer Requirements:

The needs for nitrogen and specifically potash are excessive in bananas. For the reason that early tiers of growth are vital for later improvement, nutrients have to be adequate at the time of planting and at the start of a ratoon crop. Quick periods between fertilizer programs, specifically nitrogen, are encouraged. Sindh is located in a desolate tract like a warm climate and dry subtropics fertilization program starts on 15 February soon after iciness. Greater N is needed, before warm summer much less K, P utility full dose Zn software at vegetative section. In the reproductive phase reverse the dose okay&N, at this degree more okay is required almost 60% general dose at the side of boron.

Water Requirements and irrigation methods for banana cultivation:

The total water requirement of banana flora is about 900-1200 mm for its whole life cycle and this may be met through natural precipitation (rainfall) as well as supplementary irrigation.
Keeping the choicest moisture at all levels of growth could be very critical and imparting a top drainage facility to drain out excess water from the foundation zone is similarly vital to promote the higher increase and beautify productivity.
In fashionable, irrigation of the banana plantations each 3- 4 days for the duration of hot duration and for 7-8t days through cool climate is recommended.
Flood or Furrow irrigation is the most common approach to irrigation beneath garden land cultivation. In this gadget, the water consumption could be very excessive and luxurious, with uneven distribution of water and fertilizers. There's a chance for instant unfold of nematodes
Trench irrigation is a famous technique of irrigation beneath a moist land machine of cultivation wherein inside the water is authorized to stand within the trenches opened among every row of flowers and the identical is used for draining out the extra water for rainy days.

Harvesting of Banana:

The banana plant typically produces fruit 15-18 months after planting. After the banana plant flora and result, the pinnacle part of the plant dies and every other plant sprouts up from the equal roots to replace the previous banana plant.
Banana stalks are observed inside the past due summer season after which winter is over. The fruit starts to plump up and ripens in April. Every so often, a stalk will form in the early summer season and ripen before the cold climate seems.
Mature bananas aren't harvested when they're yellow however whilst they may be nevertheless green. Because the fruit matures the fingers get fatter however stay inexperienced.
About 4-6 weeks after the hands have to prevent developing you could harvest your fruit. Bananas are geared up to choose once they appear nicely rounded between the ribs and the little vegetation on the end is dry and rubs off without difficulty. It is quality to cut off the whole stalk of bananas. Hang your stalk of bananas in a shady spot to finish ripening. They commonly ripen from the pinnacle to the bottom going from green to yellow.

Pests of Banana and their control:

Here are some of the most common banana pests and methods for controlling them:

Banana Weevils: Banana weevils are a type of beetle that feeds on the roots and stems of the banana plant, causing significant damage. Control can be achieved through the use of insecticides or by planting resistant varieties.
Mealybugs: Mealybugs are small, sap-sucking insects that can cause stunted growth and reduced yields. They can be controlled through the use of insecticides or by introducing natural predators, such as ladybugs, into the growing area.
Fruit Flies: Fruit flies are a major problem in many banana-growing regions, as they lay their eggs in the developing fruit, causing it to rot. Control can be achieved through the use of insecticides or by using physical barriers, such as bags, to protect the fruit.
Nematodes: Nematodes are small, worm-like pests that feed on the roots of the banana plant, causing stunted growth and reduced yields. Control can be achieved through the use of nematicides or by planting resistant varieties.

Diseases of Bananas and their control:

Panama Wilt (Fusarium oxysporum f. Sp. Cubense): this is a soil-borne fungal ailment and gets entry inside the plant frame via roots. It's far maximum severe in poorly drained soil. Initial signs and symptoms are yellowing of lower leaves, inclusive of leaf blades and petioles. The leaves hang around the pseudostem and wither. In the pseudostem of the diseased plant, yellowish to reddish streaks are noted with the intensification of shade towards the rhizome. Wilt is excessive in negative soil with non-stop cropping of bananas. Warm soil temperature, bad drainage, light soils, and high soil moisture are congenial for the unfolding of the disease.

Control: significantly affected flowers must be uprooted and burnt. Enormously inflamed soil needs to no longer be replanted with bananas as a minimum for 3-four years. The use of sickness-loose planting cloth and resistant cultivar are encouraged. Growing paddy accompanied by a banana for three-five years a few times, use of quick lime near the bottom of the plant and soaking with water, and keeping off sunflower or sugarcane in crop rotation facilitates lessening the ailment incidence. Dipping of suckers in Carbendazim (10g/10 liters of water) followed by way of bimonthly drenching beginning from 6 months after planting is likewise endorsed. Application of bioagents, consisting of, Trichoderma viride or Pseudomonas fluorescence within the soil is effective.

Leaf Spot, Leaf Streak, or Sigatoka disorder: Yellow Sigatoka is one of the severe illnesses affecting the banana crop. Preliminary symptoms seem inside the shape of light yellowish spots on the leaves. A small number of those increase, becoming oval; the shade additionally adjusts to darkish brown. Still later, the center of the spot dies, turning mild grey and surrounded by a brown ring. In intense instances, several spots coalesce, killing massive components of the leaf. Rainfall, dew, and temperature determine the unfold of the ailment. Conditions favoring mass infection are most commonplace at some point of the wet season with temperatures above 21°C.

Control: Cultural practices along with stepped forward drainage, management of weeds, removal of sicknesses suckers, and adopting accurate spacing is recommended. Dithane M-forty five WP and Dithane M-forty five (in water only) controlled Mycosphaerella fjijiensis var. Difformis in banana. Foliar spray of Copper Oxychloride (3 g/litre of water) or thiophanate Methyl 1 g/liters of water) controls the sickness efficiently.

Anthracnose ( Gloeosporium musae): The disease attacks banana flowers at all degrees of increase. Sickness assaults the plants, pores and skin, and distal ends of banana heads. The symptoms appear as massive brown patches covered with a crimson increase of the fungus. The ailment fruit turns black and the fruit is shriveled.

Control: Spraying of Chlorothanlonil (0.2%) and Bavistin (1 %) four instances at 15 days c language is suggested. Minimizing bruising; proper sanitation of handling and prompt cooling to fourteen°C is essential in minimizing the ailment in cold storage.

Agri community

Tuesday 7 February 2023

26. Banana Production Technology