Pak-China Joint Venture for Mass Propagation of High Yielding Banana Germplasm and its Evaluation in the Field

Banana is cultivated over an area of 32,500 hectares with an annual production of 163,500 tones. Banana crop in Pakistan has been severely infected with banana bunchy top virus (BBTV) and overall loss due to this disease is more than 60%. Moreover, in Pakistan, one variety (Basrai) covers more than 99 % of the banana area. Per hectare yield in the country is 4.4 tonnes/hectare which is much lower than other countries in the world. China has high-yielding banana cultivars and harvesting more than 25 tones/ hectare. To overcome the low productivity and disease problem, disease-resistant and high-yielding banana Germplasm will be acquired from China under the MO signed during the President's visit of China (24-26, February 2009). Initially, suckers of three banana cultivars were imported from China and established at NARC but mass scale propagation of the banana plants could not be achieved due to very little capacity and lack of private sector involvement. Mass scale banana plants from this germplasm will be produced through meristem tip culture (tissue culture) followed by rapid in vitro multiplication. Potentially these plants will be the best alternative as planting material to replace the low-yielding infected fields. During project life 100, 000 in vitro banana plants will be produced, and suckers produced by these plants will be used for the plantation of new fields. Different areas will be selected in collaboration with SCRI Thatta and AI Tandojam for the introduction of high-yielding banana plants. Chinese experts will collaborate in the production, introduction, and evaluation of the banana cultivars.SignificanceThe number of high-yielding banana plants produced through tissue culture will be the best alternate planting material to replace the infected fields.