Thottiam Banana Producer Group

In their own words

Thottiam Banana growers association is one the primary producer of banana fruits in an area of about 4000 acres comprising around six revenue blocks of the taluk.The members group comprises of small and medium farmers,tenency holders with an average land holding of less than one hectare wet land that are irrigated by cauvery river distributory canals. The major crops grown are banana,betelvine and paddy besides other horticultural crops at homestad gardens .An old tamil adage says “Wealtheir grow banana ,Weaker grow gingely”denoting the high investment and risk in banana cultivation.Presently the marketing system of banana is by produce contract and some of the leading farmers of the association themselves enter in to negotiations with the samll holders to harvest and sell the bunches at the market prevailing rates in view of the high transport and harvesting cost to take it to the auction markets at trichirappalli,chennai and to the neighbouring states. The harvesting activity stretches for three months during the season and any undulated market conditions directly hit the revenue of the banana grower.The climatic vagaries of wind , high day temperature,water shortage affects the yield ,results in forced ripening of banana further reduce the income of the farmer. The perishing nature of the fruit does not permit for storage and high volume of arrivals during season brings down the selling price level eventually. It is in this context and back drop, Sustain project ,by M/s.Bayer Material science (presentlyM/S.Coverstro) offered an excellent oppurtunity to convert the banana fruit in to solar dried banana fig, an unique cost effective value addition that will meet out our fruit production cost and manage the unsold and ripened bunches. Farmers themselves are highly enthused to bring the ripened fruit bunches to the project site and get agreed price credit thereby ensured to avoid distress sale. However the marketing of solar dried banana needs further improvisation on Packaging,flavouring,coating as a basic need to compete with the leading consumer brands. Further scaling up the production capacity was needed to cover volumes during harvest season.Our solar drier capacity is just 0.1% of daily arrivals.(Drier capacity is 21/27 ft holding 4000 fruits in single layered SS trays) With the technological advancement on the cultivation front like drip irrigation,fertigation and availability of high-tech tissue culture seedlings,farmers take up market demand driven cultivation throughout the year. The scope for solar dried banana is vast and lucarative.Besides banana, we get all vegetables,Jack fruits,pine apple and sapota grown in our district and nearby kolli hills.These seasonal fruits can also be dehydrated by the same solar drier in a cost effective and clean way. This gives a multiple advantage of utilising the drier and expand the capacity. In this year we have doulbled the capacity by putting another two driers of same size with double layer mobile trollies with improvised design to utilise for other fruits. There is growing demand for dried jack fruit,papaya and pine apple in northern states which has justified our diversion. The project met with tremendous success and motivated other farmers and societies to take solar dehydration by putting such green house driers. Madhur Fruits - Solar Dried Bananas - A unique product of value addition from Bananas, First of its kind in india, Fully matured Farm fresh bananas were selected from the orchards grown on the confluence of river Cauvery in Thottiam taluk ,Trichirappalli distirct of Tamilnadu. Quality fruits of traditional banana varieties like, poovan ,karpooravalli, Elakki were picked to get ripened in a scientific method using climate controlled ripening chambers. Ripened fruits were prepared to get dehydrated in the state of the art “ green house solar drier”hygenically. Honey, a natural preservative is sourced from kolli Hills,tested for its quality and taste is given an impregnation on bananas for sweetness and softness to roll out a Nutritive honey laced solar dried Banana,an instant energy booster and delicious fruit fig to relish……..for people of all age group. The shelf life of the product is six months.

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