Nanjangud rasabale: A tale of revival

The famed Nanjangud rasabale banana variety, which had become scarce because of a fungal disease, has begun to thrive again, thanks to enthusiastic farmers and the intervention of scientists. The Hindu visits the villages where this GI-tagged variety of banana is grown to record both the success story and the challenges ahead.

Bengaluru 

On a cloudy weekday afternoon, Nanjundaswamy was busy tending to his banana plants in his orchard at Kurahatti village in Nanjangud taluk, around 40 km from Mysuru in Karnataka. The farmer, in his 50s, is the proud owner of 850 plants of a particularly special variety of banana called Nanjangud rasabale that enjoys a Geographical Indication (GI) certification.

“The taste and pulp of our banana cannot be found in any other variety and anywhere else. The more organically we grow it, the better it tastes,” Nanjundaswamy says, beaming with pride.

This variety of rasabale is unique to Nanjangud and was awarded the GI tag in 2006 for its thick pulp and distinct taste and aroma. While the tag was expected to boost the cultivation of this variety, the next few years saw the exact opposite happening — the crop almost got wiped out.

Shocking decline

According to the Horticulture Department data, a total of 180 farmers cultivated rasabale on 100 hectares of land in 2006-07. By 2019-20, the number came down to 15, who were cultivating it on a mere 10 hectares.

With the famed banana variety on the brink, the government started taking many steps for its revival. The department along with the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR)-National Research Centre for Banana (NRCB), Tiruchirappalli, provided pesticides which would fight a deadly fungus that had infested the crop and guided growers on healthy cultivation habits.

The government also devised a six-year plan from 2023-24 to 2028-29 which included protection of the crop, expansion of cultivation area, post-harvest management, and marketing. With these plans, by the end of 2023-24, rasabale revived. It came to be cultivated on 75 hectares by 200 farmers. The department has plans to add 12 hectares of cultivation area this year, of which over 5 hectares has been added so far.

The story of revival 

The farmers around Nanjangud remember a 10-year period when they had given up hopes about rasabale and started cultivating other varieties of bananas such as yelakki and robusta.

“My father was a rasabale grower. He and many others eventually stopped cultivation as the crop was getting affected severely by Panama wilt (a lethal fungal disease) and nothing was working against it,” recalls Ramesh, who is a second-generation cultivator at Devarasanahalli in Nanjangud.

Then a few years ago, the Horticulture Department collaborated with the NRCB and the Indian Institute of Horticultural Research (IIHR) for scientific interventions to conserve the crop.

“Wilt is a soil-borne fungal disease which remains in the soil for a long time. To combat this, we came up with a product called ‘No to Wilt’ which we are supplying to the farmers in Nanjangud. This reduced the disease in the soil by 80% to 90%. While 70% of plants used to die earlier, this product has reduced it to 10% to 20%,” explains R. Selvarajan, Director of the NRCB.

Kavery Microbial Consortium, a combination of five to six beneficial bacteria which provides good vigour to the plant and can resist pathogen attacks, was also distributed to the farmers to apply on the soil around their plants. The NRCB teamed up with Suttur Krishi Vijnan Kendra (KVK) to deploy this technology. “By growing near the roots, these bacteria help mobilise nutrients to the plants. Microbiomes also protect the roots from disease,” Selvarajan says.  

The scientists of the IIHR also brought out a disease-resistant variant of rasabale through tissue culturing protocol. “We brought flowers from Nanjangud and used tissue culturing to come up with a variety which will not be affected by diseases. We have already distributed it to many farmers, and we will continue to do so,” says Usha Rani T.R., a scientist from the IIHR.

Apart from this, the State government also provides a subsidy of ₹56,093 for rasabale farmers (₹67,311 for Scheduled Castes/ Scheduled Tribes) to incentivise them to expand the cultivation area. In 2023-24, subsidies totalling ₹16.83 lakh were given to 49 farmers to expand the cultivation area by 9.08 hectares. A total of ₹35.59 lakh has been earmarked for 2024-25.

Many farmers believe that the subsidy amount played a huge role in getting more cultivators for rasabale. “The department as well as veteran farmers around here created awareness among other growers about the benefits of growing rasabale. The subsidy of over ₹34,000, which is being provided even for half an acre of rasabale cultivation, has also incentivised them,” Nanjundaswamy says.

Organic farming, growth promoters

Along with following the guidelines provided by experts, the farmers in Nanjangud have developed their own techniques to get better yield.

“During my father’s time, they used to prepare the land for two to three years before cultivating rasabale. They were using natural compost and manure. Now we do not have an intensive preparation process. We just level the land and use chemical manure. We also make use of growth promotion methods to ensure that the fruits are of a good size with thick pulp,” Ramesh says.

Officials of the Horticulture Department say that scientifically backed growth promotion methods are used for good yield. One such promoter is Banana Sakthi, a cost-effective nutrient mix developed by the NRCB. This spray increased the size of the bananas and thereby the yield by 20% to 25%.

There are, however, many growers who do not use them and rely wholly on organic farming. “Even before we prepare the land for rasabale, we sow 30 varieties of dicots and cultivate them for 45 days. Then, we use them for mulching and mix them with many other greens. Then, we have our own Jeevamrutha (a mix of natural products and animal waste) in which we dip the stems and plant them. That ensures that the plant grows disease-free, and the fruits retain their natural taste,” Nanjundaswamy explains.

Irrespective of the methods used, farmers say the plants still get infected by disease, sometimes due to weather conditions, varying water quality and other factors. Maintenance is of utmost importance. “Even with the disease-resistant variant, it is absolutely important for farmers to manage the plants well,” says Usha Rani.

Marketing concerns 

But the revival of rasabale is not entirely a happy story.

The marketing situation for rasabale is something of a paradox. The farmers The Hindu spoke to in the villages of Nanjangud expressed fear that they do not have a market outside of Mysuru district owing to lack of awareness about the variety, and excessive production might, in fact, leave them without a place to sell it. In the Nanjangud taluk itself, there are just two or three shops that sell the variety and even those are tough to identify.

But on the other hand, the sellers say that the demand outstrips supply. “We do not put up big boards or anything because we do not get as much supply as we need. A lot of tourists come looking for rasabale and during good seasons, the stock gets over by the afternoon. We need the production to increase,” says Ramanna (name changed), one of the rasabale sellers in Nanjangud.

A senior official from the Horticulture Department office in Mysuru says there are more shops in Mysuru market than in Nanjangud taluk where the rasabale variety can be sold. “We are in the process of educating farmers about where they can sell it,” the official says.

In the second week of September, the variety was selling at around ₹100 a kg. The price ranges between ₹40 and ₹100 a kg throughout the year. The farmers are not happy with these prices as they spend a little over a lakh per acre to cultivate the crop.

The NRCB is also stepping in to help farmers with marketing after hearing complaints from them. “Farmers have repeatedly told us that they do not get a good price for rasabale. We want to promote it through our e-commerce site so that there can be more buyers. There are a total of eight GI variety bananas in India and we want to promote them all on our site. Along with getting them good prices, this will also encourage farmers to increase the cultivation of the variety,” Selvarajan says.

Changing taste?

However, some long-time consumers of the fruit believe that the taste of rasabale has changed over the years. “Every time we take a trip to Nanjangud, we buy rasabale. We have been doing it for decades now. But in the last 10 years or so, I can clearly make out a difference in the taste,” says Shivashankar M., a resident of Mysuru.

Scientists say that while there is no concrete proof for this, the taste could have been “slightly different” due to disease-ridden soil. “To say that the taste has changed or not with certainty we must analyse the sugar profile of the banana and compare it with the profile from 10 or 20 years ago,” Usha Rani says.

However, with their signature crop back from the brink, the mood of farmers in Nanjangud is now upbeat. Scientists on their part say they will keep visiting the farmers in Nanjangud at least three or four times a year. “We will continue our partnership with them so that they can grow this variety confidently. We are aiming to see a 25% year-on-year growth in rasabale cultivation,” Selvarajan says.

Published - September 27, 2024 07:13 am IST