From the President’s Desk

The Virupakshi hill banana is found only in the Palani hills in Dindigul district, Tamil Nadu. It has always been grown as a shade tree for young coffee. With coffee being a long-term crop, it was the Virupakshi banana that kept the cash flowing in for the farmers in the remote and hilly terrains of the Palani hills. Likewise, the Sirumalai hill banana is exclusive to the Sirumalai hills in the Dindigul District and has been a reliable crop for the farmers there.

In the mid-nineteen seventies the dreaded bunchy top disease spread like wild fire in these hills and these two banana varieties were getting extinct.

In order to preserve these hill banana varieties and also to preserve the interest of the farmers, the Tamil Nadu Hill Banana Growers' Federation was formed. To maintain disease free banana gardens is the basic objective of the federation. Helping members procure disease free planting material and to fetch better prices in the market for the produce, are other objectives of the federation.

The federation has been successful in obtaining Geographical Indications Registration for both Virupakshi and Sirumalai hill banana varieties. We are now grateful that our work in conserving and preserving Virupakshi and Sirumalai hill banana varieties has been recognised at the national level by being awarded the Plant Genome Savior Community Award 2010 – 2011. On behalf of all our members, I thank the officials of the Central and State governments and the scientists of the National Research Centre for Banana and the Tamil Nadu Agricultural University for their continual support and co-operation.

Virupakshi and Sirumalai will never be on the endangered list. This is for sure.

Shaker Nagarajan
President
TNHBGF