Sl.No Particulars Banana for fruits Banana for leaves
1 Cost of cultivation per acre Rs.35,000 Rs.28,000
2 No of plants per acre 1200 plants ( 1.8*1.8 M ) 3300 plants( 2.4 to 2.0 M ) 4 plants/ pit
3 Yield / acre 25 MT 1,71,600 leaves
4 Price Rs.8 / kg Rs.2.5
5 Gross income Rs.2,00,000 Rs.4,29,000
6 Net profit Rs.1,65,000 Rs.4,01,000
A simple and ideal planning in banana cultivation for those farmers near big cities where hotels and restaurants are more ….
Price never falls …
The beauty is that the banana fruits whose production involve huge cost on inputs and labour fetch less profit than that of leaves whose production involve least cost
This is 90 days old banana plantations
Out of 117 leaves produced by a single banana tree , at least 52 leaves are harvested for commercial purpose …
This is really a interesting approach, Any particular variety that is ideal for leaves?
Also, the cost/kg for banana varies by variety and season. But on an average it goes over 15/kg and in good season the red banana goes for over 30. Of Course it fluctuates
Pl confirm number of leaves (Out of 117 leaves produced by a single banana tree , at least 52 leaves are harvested for commercial purpose … ) are per pit or per tree? Normally 45 to 60 leaves formed by a tree in full life time, excluding small ones before 3months and big ones after 7 months (because of tree hight not recoverable) not usefull.
regards
dev
In case of plantain grown for fruit purpose we generally do not allow suckers …we consider only fruit weight …
where as in case of plantain grown for leaf purpose , we do not restrict suckers …
Also plantain for leaf purpose keep producing leaves continuously for 18 months …
having taken everything into consideration , we planted 4 suckers per pit …
we kept records of everything …
Harvest of leaves comes once in 3 days …
The number of commercial leaves obtained from single tree , including suckers attached to specific tree usually were counted to be around 52 to 60 …
Earlier cultivation for fruits found market price unusually fluctuating , sometime lead to loss of profit …
sometime the banana tree grown for fruits suffered lodging due to gale wind when bunches grow into weight …
But the banana grown for leaves is fetching steady income .fruits price might vary in the market but leaf price never fell down in the market ,
Further the consumer eating in the hotel like to eat in banana leaves that makes your meal tasty and aroma , unlike an experience of eating in plate and synthetic leaves and plastics …
I think your question is why kadali banana is putting forth more numbers of suckers and if any method or practices were found out to remove or arrest excess suckers …If you seek answer for this then I say no …
Because banana corms are nothing but compressed stem with lot of closely packed internodes …What actually we see as banana tree is just a pseudo stem …
When the pseudo stem grows fast to produce flowers and fruits , other branches that is called suckers here sprout slowly in few numbers and the number of new suckers developed from mother corm increase once main banana tree initiate flowering …That shows further growth of main stem is arrested …that naturally induce the branches ( suckers ) to develop from mother corm ( that is closely packed many short internodes with many axil sprouts ) …so it is natural and inherent process in banana plant system…
Further number of suckers produced from single mother corm depends on the specific variety character that in turn is influenced by climate and soil …
So if you want to grow banana with less suckers , either you have to remove suckers periodically as and when being produced or else simply change the variety …
What Mr. Ramu is suggesting is 100% Practiacable. The Banana Leaves are not having Market year Round and its Marketing is tough and much Labor oriented.
