Plantain and Banana

Introduction

Plantain and banana are giant perennial herbaceous plants commonly grown in the humid and mid-altitute of sub-saharan Africa. Plantain stores carbohydrate as starch and banana as more sugar, hence banana is eaten raw while plantain is cooked or fried before eaten when ripe or processed into different semi and finished products.

Plantain/Banana are rank among the 10 major staple food crops and Nigeria is among the major 10 producing countries in the world.

In Nigeria, the crops are cultivated in the humid forest and long the Fadama in the Savannah ecology. Plantain is the cheapest staple food  crop to produce in terms of total cost of production per hectare, it gives high economic returns, reaches maturity and pays off the cost of establishment within a year.

Economic Importance of Plantain and Banana (p/b)

Ø  Food Value: they are rich source of carbohydrates, dietary, minerals, vitamins and crude proteins.

Ø  Export Value: national and international trade for plantain/banana has continuously widen and largely unsatisfied;

Ø  Industrial: p/b have promising industrial potentials especially in pharmaceutical and food industries;

Ø  Medicinal: p/b are highly valuable in the management of diabetes, tonsillitis and stomach ulcer;

Ø  Livestock Feeds: the peels of the fruits, stalks and leaves are good livestock feeds especially for ruminant.

Activities

To exploit the nigeria economic potentials in p/b industry, the The FMARD in collaboration with FAO is promoting plantain and banana production in Nigeria for Domestic Consumption and Export in some major producing states. Over 1000farmers has been trained on different Plantain/Banana agribusiness ventures like sucker multiplication and propagation; Nursery and Field Maintenance/Management; Post Harvest Technology and Preparation of Plantain/Banana Products (finished products), etc.

Among other achievements a national body National Banana/Plantain Growers, Processors and Marketers Association of Nigeria (NAPBAN) was formed to coordinate and ensure effective operation of value chain key actors. To join the association, contact ….