Keventer Agro Ltd has established procurement linkage with 500 farmers in West Bengal for Grand Nine variety of tissue cultured banana cultivation.

This is the outcome of a CII-USAID project where farmers of five blocks of Nadia district were motivated to cultivate the banana variety. Keventer, which has a fruits trading division, provided commitment of off-take of entire production.

Sunil Kajaria, President – Strategy of Keventer, told Business Line that the company is ready to procure 5,000 tonnes of the banana variety in the next nine months at market rates. Under the project, 2,000 subsidised saplings of this pest and disease resistant variety to farmers for improving earnings.

Kajaria said the produce of this variety results in around 40 per cent higher income for the farmers compared to traditional variety -- Robusta. The project saw introduction of the variety – also known as G9 – in Nadia district of the State where traditionally jute cultivators were looking for a changeover for better earning farm earning opportunities.

The banana variety has three consistent crop cycles in two years compared with one-a-year of the Robusta variety, common in the State. Though the current introductory area of cultivation of the improved variety is just 100 hectares, it can jump to some 6000 hectares in the next few seasons. Another 2,500 farmers are likely to take up farming of the G9 variety seeing the fruits of the project.

The Rs 600-crore Keventer has a 36 tonnes-a-day banana-ripening unit at Barasat North 24 District some 30 km north of the city. The unit caters to the demands of the State capital only. Keventers deals in both Robusta and G9 varieties.

The West Bengal Agriculture Department is trying to move the farmers away from high-yield production approach to higher-income approach to engineer a change in the fields.

The market-driven agriculture is leading the State gradually towards exports in a number of food crops.

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