Cultivation of Bananas for Leaves in Tanjore District

Banana, besides being an important food crop capable of yielding on an average 20,000 to 25,000 lb. of food per acre in a year, is also a valuable money crop. The intensive cultivation of bananas is practised mostly for its fruits. Its cultivation for the purpose of leaves, except in parts of the Tanjore district and to a very little extent in Tiruchira- palli district, is not known anywhere else. In other parts of the State, one or two ratoon crops of bananas for bunches are taken after the main plant crop; subsequent to this, all the suckers of the harvested plants are allowed to grow for about four to six months and the leaves are harvested. When the crop is intended for fruits, removing even a single leaf from the plant is strongly objected to by the ryots as it would affect the size and weight of the bunch. Hence the leaves are cut only from the side suckers or from the plantation which is proposed to be destroyed and replanted. In the Tanjore district round about Thiruvayar and in parts of Papanasam taluk, bananas are cultivated for the sake of the leaves. The crop stands in the field for two years. A crop of bunches is taken in the first year plant crop; the ratoon crop, subsequent to the harvest of bunches, is the one for the leaves. The leaf crop in the second year fetches more profit than the first year bunch crop. Such cultivation for the purpose of the leaves extends to abont 2,000 acres in the above places,