The latest on the Israel track is the Rs 3-crore biotechnology centre opened by Kerala Government last week for growing banana varieties and catalysing floriculture. Kerala is the first State Government in the country to invest in a mega-tissueculture unit in any plant variety.

Diffusion of Isreali varieties has electrified the profitability scenario of banana, said Sundaresan, Director, Kerala Agriculture department. At an investment of Rs 60 per plant, returns of over Rs 200 can be clinched using the Isreali GrandNein variety alone. Varieties like robusta, nentran, dwarf cavendish and red plantain are also cultivable through the more economical tissue culture route .

Inspired by the Israeli experience of irigation-fed banana plantations proving the bread basket of the national farm income, Kerala Government has been on a mission of replicating the banana-led growth in the State.

Initially, the acceptance of tissueculture varieties was limited probably because the growth rate of these items in the preliminary stages is hardly dramatic, he said.

Market for banana products has also become elastic, especially in the West Asian segment. The export of banana-based products through the Kochi port has increased from 0.5 tonne in 1980 to 28 tonnes in 1999. In the last Onam season alone (August-Septemer), the exports had amounted to 9.02 tonnes.

According to a Nabard-sponsored study in Kerala in 1999, more than 40 percent of the Nabard-refinanced agriculture loans in the State have poured into banana cultivation. The credit-structure of the banana crop loan, with attractively staggered payback facilities, has also been favourable to pushing banana cultivation in the State. However, while the credit pattern and the market development has helped in spreading banana cultivation, the stretch in profitability has been the contribution of switching to tissue culture planting material and methods from Israeli systems, claim Kerala Agriculture officials. In comparison with the traditional planting material, the profitability of GrandNein varieties is nearly 200 percent. Not only does the vareitiety produce 20-40 kilo bunch, but also has a distinct market advantage in that the harvesting spill-offs are minimum. Apart from the State Agriculture Department, Kerala Agriculture University and the EU-sponsored Kerala Horticulture Development Programme (KHDP),several private agencies like the Kochi-based AVT are also supplying tissue culture planting material to farmers.

The entry of a State Government to a scenario so far dominated by private suppliers will make quality material available to farmers at fair rates, claimed Kerala Agriculture Minister Krishnan Kaniyanparambil. The Biotechnology and Model Floriculture Centre, inaugurated on Wednesday in Kazhakootam near Thiruvananthapuram, has labortory and green house facilities to produce ten lakh planting material simultaneously. Apart from gleanings from Isreal experience, Kerala Government has also used expertise in tissue culture from the Chennai-based SPIC.