The government of West Bengal has announced a new project that will prevent banana from decaying and help the growers market their produce and get better price for the same.
Nandini Chakraborty, Secretary of Agriculture, Food Processing and Horticulture told media that there are around 3.7 lakh banana growers in the state and the new scheme will surely help them.
She said tissue culture banana will be cultivated over an estimated area of 700 hectares in Nadia and Murshidabad districts as part of the new project worth Rs 2322.869 lakh. Here the state government will have a share of Rs 930.386 lakh, the participating cultivators Rs 933.583 lakh and the Keventer Agro group will contribute Rs 458.90 lakh.
She further said the two districts selected in the 1st phase of the project as Murshidabad and Nadia had reported bumper and quality banana production in past few years.
Chakraborty said, “The project will help keep consistent quality standard of banana which is fragile after 4 days”.
When asked if this could be called a project on PPP model, she said, “If you use the term loosely, then it can be called that.”
She added that the West Bengal government will monitor the cultivation and all other matters and for the first eleven months it will also teach the growers about the modern ways.
Mahua Mitra, Trinamool Congress MLA said, “There is need for a banana value chain for back-up support for cultivators and we want them not to be exploited by the middle men who deprive them of the market price and also cause wastage of produce at the time of transportation. The new facilities will prevent all this”.
The chairman and managing director of Keventer Agro, Mayank Jalan said the company will first buy the produce from farmers then mature the bananas scientifically in their ripening chambers and market through their network. It will also build infrastructures such as ‘pack house’ and ‘ripening chamber’ which are essential for implementation of the venture, the official said.
