Society

Going Bananas

Don't take the fruit for granted, it may not be around forever

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Going Bananas
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India gave bananas to the world and today it is the world’s largest banana republic—in terms of production. But the country is losing wild banana species at an alarming rate with grave implications for the poor, the tribals and ultimately even those addicted to stylish banana daiquiris. The crucial cropis threatened in its ancient nursery of the eastern and western ghats, the tropical northeastern rain forests and in the Andaman and Nicobar islands because of slash-and-burn cultivation techniques, grazing and runaway urbanisation.

The biggest tragedy is that no one knows how many species have already been lost because there hasn’t been a proper stocktaking of the banana. Experts at the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organisation(FAO), who work on food security for the most vulnerable, are worried about the shrinking gene pool in India. It was the country’s rich biodiversity that helped create seed-free commercial and disease-resistant bananas over time. India’s loss can easily be the world’s loss.

The affordable "food-fruit" is the source of sustenance for 400 million people in developing countries, including millions in India. Any danger to the crop affects food security, banana being the fourth most important food after rice, wheat and maize. The large, pulpy, spotless Cavendish banana, which accounts for $4.7 billion in annual world exports, came from Indian ancestors.

"You need diversity to develop new varieties, to fight new diseases. In nature, that’s how it is," saysFAO’s resident banana expert, NeBambi Lutaladio. He is concerned about the loss of biodiversity in India as are senior scientists atFAO. Next month, world attention will focus on genetic resources when ministers attend the first ever governing body meeting of the International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture in Madrid. A highly contentious treaty, it took 28 years to negotiate after pitched battles between the rich and poor countries over how to define, preserve and share benefits from genetic resources. Since India was a keen participant and one of the first countries to sign it, it has an obligation to preserve genetic resources on its soil.

Banana is one of the 40 crops listed by the treaty which must be protected. Even though India produces 16.8 million tonnes of the fruit annually, or over 20 per cent of world output of 72.6 million, all is not well with"kalpatharu"—the plant of all virtues of ancient Hindu texts. A recent report by Uma Subbaraya of India’s National Research Centre for Banana in Trichy, Tamil Nadu, released byFAO in Rome, says many species once widely known in India’s northeastern states have either disappeared or have a very small presence today.

The most important loss is of Musa acuminata burmannicoides, a species known for resisting the dreaded Sigatoka leaf spot disease which has threatened crops from Fiji to Zimbabwe. Only one of its clone remains in Calcutta’s botanic garden. "This has been an eyeopening tragedy witnessed by Musa scientists in the last four to five decades," Subbaraya wrote. Her assessment after interviewing scores of people in some 300 villages was grim about the loss from ‘jhum’ or slash-and-burn cultivation.

Jhum is an old practice specially used by indigenous people in the northeast where tribals clear forest for planting and then leave it fallow for regeneration. Whereas earlier the land was left fallow for 15 or 20 years giving it enough time to regenerate, today the twin pressures of population and shrinking forests have reduced the rest period to three to five years. Add to slash-and-burn the uncontrolled grazing by animals owned by the tribals, natural fires, pest and disease epidemics, and the forest cries for cover.

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Still, the government has no specific projects to save the wild bananas, according to Indian experts, only generalised biodiversity conservation programmes, where banana is a crop among hundreds of others. The only banana-specific effort is undertaken by Subbaraya’s centre which is trying to scientifically document a vast area. The terrain is often inaccessible and prone to insurgencies, she said in an interview. "Systematic explorations in these areas are expected to yield many more useful wild species and its wild relatives." The agricultural establishment in India, including universities, is yet to wake up to the loss of wild varieties. "It’s time that wild bananas received focus for long-term benefits of the banana industry," Subbaraya said.

Complacency can turn today’s abundance to tomorrow’s scarcity. Jose Esquinas-Alcazar, secretary of theFAO’s commission on genetic resources, has a stark reminder. The Irish potato famine (1846-51) which claimed a million lives and forced another million to flee to the US, was because of lack of genetic diversity of the potato. Unfortunately, the Europeans had brought back only one kind of potato from Latin America and it took one fungus to devastate it. "Countries rich in euros and dollars are 90 per cent dependent for genetic diversity on developing countries rich in this area," he toldOutlook.

Wild bananas may not always be edible because they are full of seeds but they may carry disease-resistant genes. The Lushais, Lakhers and the Mizos use them to extract fibre, while many indigenous people use the banana for medicinal purposes, including reducing kidney stones. Some tribes use it as cheap animal feed and even for making beer. The banana is, in fact, integral to Indian cultural and religious life. Written records of the fruit go back to Kautilya’s Arthashastra (400-300 BC), to the paintings of Ajanta and Ellora caves (200 BC) and to the Ramayana. It was Alexander who carried the banana westward from his invasion of India in 327 BC, while Arab traders took it from India to Africa. The father of taxonomy, Carl Lennaeus, dubbed one Indian species Musa sapientum or the fruit of the wise because of a classical Greek writer’s account of Indian rishis savouring bananas.

Lutaladio says while India has made an enormous contribution to the global genetic pool of bananas, it must urgently act to manage the jhum style cultivation. "They can do selective burning. Efforts must increase to conserve and preserve what remains, not just in gene banks but in real forests," he says. With international help, Indian agricultural scientists have collected 1,000 "accessions" or strains of bananas, but there may be thousands more in the jungles of Nagaland and Mizoram.

Indian conservation efforts also need to treat local people as "partners" and document their knowledge. That is the real purpose of the genetic resources treaty which India so wholeheartedly supported. As Esquinas-Alcazar said, "Genetic resources are a treasure for future generations. They were developed and maintained by thousands of generations before us and we have a moral and legal obligation to conserve them."

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by Seema Sirohi in Rome

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