CAU develops new banana variety
Source: The Sangai Express
Imphal, October 22 2022:
College of Agriculture, Central Agricultural University (COA, CAU), Imphal has developed a new variety of banana plant (G-9/Grand Nain) using tissue culture and virus indexing techniques.
The banana plants were revealed during a simple function held at the Administrative Block of CAU by COA Dean Prof Indira Sarangthem, Professor RK Dilip of Department of Horticulture and Professor L Nabachandra of Department of Agronomy .
Addressing the function, Indira Sarangthem said that the G-9/Grand Nain variety of banana plant was developed by Department of Genetics and Plant Breeding of CAU using tissue culture and virus indexing techniques from the stalk of the banana plant grown in the central farm of the varsity.
The whole process took about eight months, she said.
Indira maintained that the initiative was taken up by scientists Dr G Ranand Sharma and Dr Taramla Raman under the supervision of Head of Department of Genetics and Plant Breeding, N Brojendro.
Saying that one of the common problems being faced by banana cultivators is infection by viruses such as mosaic virus, she added that G-9/Grand Nain, however, is immune to virus infection as it was developed using virus indexing technique.
This development of a new variety of banana plant will benefit the farmers engaging in banana cultivation greatly, she said and added that G-9 is also a high yielding variety and a commercial crop.
CAU is planning to make the banana plant available to farmers by March or April next year, the Professor said.