Banana

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 Introduction

Origin and Distribution

The Genus Musa originated in South East Asia.
- West ,central and East Africa are considered to be
secondary centers of variation.
- Banana is the 4th most important food in the world.

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 Cont…
Production status in Ethiopia
 Dessert type is popular among producers and consumers

 Production is semi-intensive small scale and commercial

level

 Some private farms started emerging

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 Cont…
At present major suppliers of banana to major cities are
south and southwestern Ethiopia

(Arba Minch, Mizan and Tepi)

Major production in Ethiopia comes from local farmers.

 Banana clone collections are found at Melkassa, Werer

and Jimma.

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 . Morphology
 Musa is monocarpic and yet is
perennial plant.

 Has pseudostem, leaves, floral stalk,

corm , roots and fruit.

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Leaves

 A plant that has just started to flower bears

15 leaves but shouldn`t be less than 8 leaves

 Leaves used to photosynthesis.

The Corm /True stem/

 Consisted of apical meristem and lateral bud

and Food is stored in the corm, which is

used for the future development.

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 Inflorescence and Flowers
 It is differentiated in the central part of the

pseudostem.

 All flowers contain a pistil and stamens.

 One by one the bracts rise to expose the flowers.

 At the lower end they form a bulbous/ spherical ‘male bud’.

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 Pseudostem

 The cylindrical pseudostem is borne by the corm.

 Leaf sheaths of successive leaves closely encircled each

other and form a cylindrical compact structure called
pseudostem.

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 Roots
 Banana has no tap root rather adventitious.

 Under goo soil the majority of the roots are at 15 cm depth and
60 cm width.

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 Fruit
 It develops by means of parthenocarpy.

 In contrast to the bunch, fruits curve upwards.

 A fruit cluster is generally called ‘a hand’ and a single

fruit a ‘finger’.

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 Trends of world and regional banana gross exports (1000
tons), 2008-2012

Exporters 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012

Asia 305.7 1857.4 1764.9 2217.4 2817.9
Central & South America 687.8 11 976.2 11 392.2 12 202.0 12 705.4
Africa (total) 611.4 568.2 643.5 633.7 648.8
World (total) 14 872.3 14 771.4 14 180.2 15 378.3 16 494.8
Ethiopia 2 2.8 3.6 4.1 4.1

Source: FAO (2014)

 Types of Banana
 Dessert Banana (served after ripe)

 Plantain

 Cooking Banana

 West African Type Banana (Cooked just at ripening)

 East African Type Banana (Raw cooked )

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 Dessert banana

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 West African type Cooking Banana

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 East African highland type cooking banana

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 planting materials
1. Corm
 Remove all the aerial parts and are cut into two or
more pieces
 Each containing one or more eyes, and weigh over
2.5 k.g.
 Planted with the eyes down and covered with
25-30cm of soil.

2. Peepers
 Young suckers above round with scale leaves.
 Cont…
3. Water sucker
 Superficial origin bearing broad leaves at early
growth stage.
 Rejected, b/c lack vigor
 Avoid from commercial field
 some times used as a propagation materials
4. Sword Sucker
 From buds or eyes on corm and bear narrow
sword leaves
 75 cm-100 cm high and about 15 cm- 20 cm in
diameter.
 Make the best followers
5.Maiden Sucker
 Tall suckers which have broad leaves
 Have not yet shoot a bunch
 Used for gaping
Uses
 High energy value (104 kcal/100g)
 Rich in ascorbic acid and vitamin B6.
 Plantains are rich in vitamin A.
 Green fruits of plantains and cooking bananas are eaten cooked
 Ripe, yellow dessert bananas are eaten fresh.

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 Cont…
 Used for beer making
 Wine is produced.
 Male flower eaten as a vegetable
 Rope making.
 Used as an umbrella.
 Wrapping food.
 Leaves used as roofing material
 Cattle feeds
 Bread “difo”
 Art works.
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 Production Environment
 Usually cultivated at temperatures of 190 to 330.
 Growth will stop around 380C.
 Ideally, night temperatures should not drop below
12 °C
 Predominantly a tropical crop grow up to 1800
m.a.s.l.).
 High yield and quality fruit at lower altitude
with supplementary irrigation
 Dessert bananas grow well in the low lands as
opposite to cooking types
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 Land preparation
 Easily accessible, flat and well drained soils
are preferred.

 Weeds or cover crops are destroyed

chemically and /or mechanically.

 Fields are ploughed and harrowed.

 Drainage channels can be dug.

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 Soil
 Grows in various types of soil however, deep,

loamy, and well-drained soils are ideal.

Ideal PH range 5-6.5

 High sensitive to salinity and acidic soils

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 Spacing
 planted either in furrows or planting holes at
distances of 2.5 * 2.5 m or 2 * 2.5/3 m.

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 Hole preparation
 50cm * 50cm * 50cm in good drainage

soil

60cm * 60cm * 60cm otherwise.

 First, we remove the topsoil at one

side & the subsoil at other side.

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 Cont…
 Mixed topsoil with 2-3 buckets of well decomposed cattle

manure and returned back to the hole first.

 It is good to add P fertilizer at the bottom.

 In some areas irrigated 2-3 days prior to planting

 In MARC irrigation applied just after planting

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 Planting
 A suitable time to plant is at the onset of the rainy
season; however, if there is irrigation water is
available could be planted at any time of the year
except during the cool months of the year.

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 Irrigation and Fertilization
Irrigation
 The Melkassa practice is watering in every 5-7 days
for young seedlings and 10-15 days for well establish
plants during dry season.
Fertilization
 Rates vary with soil and climatic conditions and can reach
levels of 600 kg N, 320 kg P and 600kg -800kg K per
hectare.
 Apply 15-25 k.g well decomposed cattle manure/ compost.

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 Cont…
Weed Control
 Weeds can be manually or chemically controlled.
 Herbicide can (Round up)
 Mulching also control weed.
Mulching
 Reduce evapo-transpiration
 Increase organic matter content of the soil.

(Elephant grass (Pennisetum purpureum Schumach)).

 Suppress weed

 Up to 10 kg manure/plant/year is applied.

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 Sucker/clump Management
o Removal of surplus suckers

o Mother
o Daughter
o Follower of the daughter has been
generally adopted.
o Rotational and linear systems of
sucker can be used.

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 Propping (provision of support)
 Easily break when exposed to

o Heavy winds
o Drought stress.
 A common practice in plantations is to

support flowering plants by wooden pole,

bamboo used under peduncle.
 Two adjacent plants support each other by

being tied together by wire, is also practiced.

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 Wind
 Bananas are very susceptible to wind

 Leaf-tearing can reduce productivity and photosynthesis

 Use wind break to minimize wind damage

 Trees or Ducasse hybrid bananas use to protect wind

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 Bagging
 Bagging before it reaches maturity
improve fruit quality as it protects the
fruit against frost , sunburn, dust, spry
residue, insects, and birds.

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 Maturity indices
 When angularity as fruit fingers increase in girth
from thin fruit to thicker rounded.

 Male flower gets dry for most cultivars

 When male flower cut exudates slowly

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 Harvesting

oTakes 12-18 months

o The pseudostem is forced to bend under

the weight of the heavy bunch.

o Notch/cut the pseudostem with a machete

while holding the stem of the bunch

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 Machete and file

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 Cont…
 Sever the bunch as it rests on your
shoulder and carry to a nearby
padded transport vehicle.

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 Banana transportation
 For transport, bananas must be sound, clean,
whole, fresh, free of foreign odors and taste,
free of abnormal moisture and undamaged.

 Transport of bananas is usually done by trucks and

ventilated Fruits for export are kept in refrigerated
ships maintained at 13° to 14°C.

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 Cont…
 De-handing knife.

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 De-handing
 Minimizes rot of cut ends;
use sharp, clean knife and
make even (not ragged) cuts.
 Off grade fruits are
identified at this step

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 Washing
 Washing in soap and water plus 0.5-1% bleach.
 Removes latex from hands and helps to remove sooty mold
and superficial insects.

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 Packing and storage
After washing, hands are placed on a
cushioned, rotating drying table for air drying.
 Wrapped with polyethylene
 packed18 kg in cartoon boxes for transport.
 Storage up to 7 days at ambient To or up to 20 days
under refrigeration.
 < 13 chilling may occur hence, the storage To ranges
13-14oc.

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 Ripening
 Maximum color development can be obtained by ripening
at 20 to 24°C Where as maximum shelf life is obtained by
slow ripening at 16 to 17°C.
 Ripening is carried out in specially designed rooms, capacity
10 to 20 tons, with precise control of air circulation
 Ripening is initiated by treatment with ethylene gas, usually
1000ppm, for 24 hours,

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