ICAR scientists to make efforts to protect ‘disease-prone’ Nanjangud Rasabale: Union Minister Chouhan 

Union Minister for Agriculture and Farmers’ Welfare Shivaraj Singh Chouhan has announced that a special team of scientists from Indian Council for Agricultural Research (ICAR) will soon take up a study on protecting Nanjangud Rasabale variety of banana from diseases.

Mr. Chouhan, who was here on Friday to participate in the 110th birth anniversary of Shivarathri Rajendra Swami at Suttur Mutt, visited a nearby horticultural farm at Chikkahalli in Varuna Assembly constituency and enquired the reasons behind farmers gradually giving up cultivation of the popular variety.

Mr. Chouhan was accompanied by Mysuru MP Yaduveer Krishnadatta Chamaraja Wadiyar and officials from JSS Krishi Vigyan Kendra, among others.

The unique characteristics of Nanjangud Rasabale, including its distinctive taste and pulp, had earned it the Geographical Indication (GI) tag in 2005-06.

After learning that farmers had abandoned the crop owing to a soil-borne disease, leading to a substantial decline in its cultivation, Mr. Chouhan sought to know if any research had been carried out to help the farmers combat the disease.

It was pointed out to him that studies had been carried out and it was the soil was the source of the disease. The Union Minister felt that it was necessary for a team of scientists from ICAR to visit the region and come up with a solution to eliminate the infestation.

He felt there was a need to make the soil free of the disease so that the unique variety of banana — Nanjangud Rasabale — could be protected.

“It is important to keep the local variety alive,” he said, while adding that all efforts would be made to help farmers and increase their earnings.

Meanwhile, officials from the Department of Horticulture in Mysuru said Nanjangud Rasabale, which could be cultivated only in Nanjangud because of the GI tag, was already on the path of revival.

Thanks to the State government’s programmes that include technical interventions to combat the disease as well as subsidies, the cultivation of Nanjangud Rasabale variety, which had plummeted to about 30 to 50 acres about seven to eight years ago, had now reached around 150 to 200 acres, an official from the department told The Hindu.

The “organic bio-agents” supplied to farmers by the State government had already helped them tackle the disease to a large extent, the official said.

The disease afflicting the Nanjangud Rasabale variety of farmers was identified by the Horticulture Department official as ‘Panama Wilt’.

The source of the disease was identified to “flood irrigation”. The crop did not suffer from any disease before canals were built in the region to irrigate the agricultural lands.

The area of cultivation of other GI crops in the region like Mysuru Betel Leaf as well as Mysuru Mallige was also on the rise, added the Horticulture Department official.