3-day Banana Festival begins in city
Mysuru: A 16-feet soaring single banana fruit bunch with more than 1,000 fruits in multiple clusters is quite rare. This unique fruit, known as the ‘1,000-finger banana,’ is the highlight of the three-day Banana Festival, which opened at Nanjaraja Bahadur Choultry on Vinoba Road in the city this morning.
This variety, also known as ‘pisang seribu’ in Malay or ‘ayiram poovan’ locally in Kerala, bears up to 1,000 small, 1.5-2-inch fruits and is the prized possession of Abaneesh from Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala, one of the participants at the festival. He is the son of Vinod Sahadevan Nair, known for conserving many local and exotic varieties of bananas.
Organised by Sahaja Samrudha in collaboration with Akshaya Kalpa Organics, the festival celebrates the diversity of native bananas. It showcases 130 banana varieties, along with value-added products, banana fibre crafts and banana-based cuisines which are on sale and display at the venue.
Manjunath Angadi, Deputy Director of Horticulture Department, praised Sahaja Samrudha for organising this festival for the fifth time in Mysuru. He highlighted that seven lakh metric tonnes of bananas are grown in 20,000 hectares of land in Mysuru district, attributing this success to various Central Government schemes that assisted farmers in cultivating bananas in the district.
Other banana varieties showcased at the festival include Nanjangud Rasabale, Elakki Bale, Sirumalai, Cocous, Nendra Kalli, Poongalli, Namwa Khom, Attu Kadali, Chingan, Aatu Kombu, Chinna Karpooram, Vananthpuri, Yangambi, Jaripuya, Motta Poovan, Malai Kalli, Ladan, Kuthirai Vaal Chingan, Veli Padathi, Ney Vazhai, Dudsagar Padathi, Chepurulu Bontha, Karim Kadali, Krishna Vazha, Pacha Bontha Batheesa, Ashy Batheesa and Lacattan among others.
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