Banana being a polyploid male and female sterile; improving this crop through conventional breeding approach is a laborious and time consuming task. Banana breeding in a network program has been initiated by the recommendation of 23rd RAC held on 14th-15th February, 2023.
As a first step, The “Hands-on Training on Banana Breeding Techniques” training was conducted jointly by ICAR-National Research Centre for Banana and ICAR-AICRP(F) during 28th and 29th of December, 2023, at ICAR-NRCB, Tiruchirappalli.
The event was inaugurated in the Farm Office of ICAR-NRCB with the participants from AICRP (F) centres Arabhavi, Coimbatore, Kovvur and Pusa. The trainees were exposed to banana hybridization technique following which the Inaugural Meet was conducted in the Farm, ICAR-NRCB. The Director, ICAR-NRCB enlisted the importance of having “Banana Breeding Network Program” including the AICRP (F) centres. Lectures on Problems and strategies in banana breeding, Breeding of Ornamental Banana, A glance on banana breeding – World Scenario, Seed Anatomy and Embryo culture, Biotechnological approaches for early screening of breeding lines and Resistance Breeding in Banana were given during the training. Demonstration on harvesting and seed extraction, pollen viability, embryo culture, Banana breeding tracker tool and ploidy determination were conducted. The participants gained both theoretical and practical knowledge in banana breeding and were provided with a manual for reference. The training was an eye-opener for all the participants on various aspects of banana breeding and a review paper was suggested to be written utilizing the resource input across the AICRP (F) centre. Suckers of improved diploid and wild species namely 0015, 97, 115, 134, 148, 207, 429, 932, 933, Popoulu, Chengdawat and Musa acuminatassp, zebrinawere provided to the participants for planting in the respective centres