Author(s):

Majuja Rakshi, K Venkata Subbaiah, G Prabhuling, GSK Swamy and Praveen Jholgiker

Abstract: Banana, an ancient fruit crop is known as ‘apple of paradise’ and is botanically named as Musa paradisiaca. It belongs to family Musaceae. Micro propagated banana plantlets are increasingly becoming the planting material of choice because of disease control, uniformity and the possibility of rapid multiplication. However, growers have to face higher costs and pay up to five times more than for suckers. The cost of fully hardened banana plantlet is Rs.10-12/plantlet while the cost of sucker derived banana is Rs. 2-3/plantlet. Small and marginal farmers cannot afford the micro propagated banana plantlets. A 90% resource cost reduction in tissue culture of banana was achieved by replacing tissue culture grade sucrose and Gelrite in the medium with locally available commercial sugar and a starch/Gelrite mixture or sago (39.39 % of agar cost), cotton fiber support (60.22 % of agar cost), Starches of corn or potato could partially substitute for Gelrite and agar. Sugars of cane or sugar beet origin were suitable. AR grade sucrose by rock sugar (95.85 % of sucrose cost) and distilled water by aquaguard water (89.60 % of double distilled water cost) and by using sun light instead of artificial light. Low cost options should lower the cost of production without compromising the quality of the micropropagules and plants. In low cost technology cost reduction is achieved by improving process efficiency and better utilization of resources. Low-cost tissue-culture technology is high priority in agriculture, horticulture, forestry, and floriculture of many developing countries for the production of suitably priced high quality planting material.

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