ICAR-National Research Centre for Banana, Tiruchirappalli, Tamil Nadu,has bagged the prestigious Sardar Patel Outstanding ICAR Institution Award 2020 in the category of small Institutes. The award was received from Shri. Narendra Singh Tomar, Hon'ble. Union Minister of Agriculture and Farmers welfare and President, ICAR, during the Foundation Day ceremony of ICAR held on 16.07.2021 in virtual mode. The institute has brought a sea change in banana cultivation by introducing improved cultivars, production and protection technologies and post-harvest technologies. Shri. Km. Shobha Karandlaje, Hon'ble Minister of State and Shri. Kailash Choudhary, Hon'ble Minister of State were also present in the meeting. Shri. Trilochan Mohapatra, Director General of ICAR, DDGs, ADGs and other Scientists across the countryalso participated in the meeting.

Journey of research excellence of ICAR- NRCB – A glance

The institute has been maintaining Asia’s largest field gene bank of 374 indigenous and 124 exotic varieties along with invitro and cryo gene banks. The continuous efforts in banana improvement have yielded rich dividends and the centre has released six new climate resilient varieties,viz.Udhayam, Kaveri Saba, Kaveri Kalki, Kaveri Sugantham, Kaveri Haritha and Kaveri Kanya,with unique characteristics for different agro-climatic zones which have already become popular in different parts of the country. Banana production technologies such as high density planting, nutrient management, fertigation, Banana shakthi (micronutrient mixture), bunch spraying, clump management and bunch sleeving have played a significant role in enhancing banana productivity and efforts were made to transfer these technologies from lab to land across the different agroecosystems in the country.

ICAR-NRCB has developed technology packages and sea shipment protocolsfor sea shipment of traditional varieties like Nendran. This has brought out enormous changes in the export of ethnic bananas to the Middle East and Europe.The centre has not only confirmed the occurrence of the devastating disease Fusarium wilt – Tropical race 4 in Bihar for the first time but also developed sustainable management practices for the same. With the cutting-edge technology - in situ virus detection kits and markers for genetic fidelity, more than 225 million tissue culture planting materials were certified and distributed to the farmers.In post-harvest technological research, the centre has developed several value-added products and the same has been popularised among different stakeholders. Value added products from green banana and ripened banana are the cutting-edge technologies from the post-harvest research team.Collaborative works have been initiated with different banana based FPOs, FIGs, SHGs. The outreach programme of the institute has reached more than one million different stakeholders in India and abroad. The NRCB has implemented several administrative reforms including adoption of e-governance for paperless office, digital governance, central facilities for lab and stores in recent years. The research farm of NRCB has been developed further with addition of new farm buildings and other infrastructure in recent years.

The above Journey of research excellence of ICAR-NRCB with great team work has brought out the victory for all the staff members of ICAR- NRCB with the prestigious Sardar Patel Outstanding ICAR Institution Award 2020 in the category of small Institutes.