Exploring the Status, Potential and Utilization of Banana Improvement and Development in India

Abstract

The International Transit Centre (ITC), located at KU Leuven in Belgium, houses the world’s most extensive banana germplasm collection, comprising around 1,500 different accessions. Utilizing suitable germplasm in the breeding programme is the prime objective in any varietal development programme. ICAR–NRCB initiated a drive to utilize 124 accessions from ITC. These accessions have been shared with multiple centres of the All India Coordinated Research Project (AICRP) on Fruits throughout India. Different initiatives were undertaken by different institutes in the varietal development programmes in banana. However, till now, there has been no proper documentation of the current status, potential, and utilization of the ITC accessions received from Bioversity International. Hence, the present effort focuses on documenting various utilization methods of the ITC accessions across India. A systematic interview schedule was prepared and sent to all the researchers involved in banana breeding projects under AICRP. A one-day workshop and focused group discussion were organized to gather information about the ITC accessions from their respective states, and the data were compiled and presented systematically. This study shows that a few ITC accessions were directly utilized by the institutes as varieties and were released for farmers’ cultivation due to their superior nature. A majority of the ITC accessions were used as one of the parents in breeding programmes. However, the adoption rate for ITC accessions by farmers has not been encouraging, as it takes a longer period to replace the existing varieties due to their market suitability. Further, this study concludes with the constraints involved in the utilization of the ITC accessions. Certainly, it will be useful for banana breeders and policy-makers to plan their strategies for developing an effective breeding policy for varietal development in India.