Introduction
- Banana stands second next only to mango
in area and production among fruit crops in India. The major banana
producing states are Maharashtra, Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Gujarat, Assam,
Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka.
- More than 40 per cent of production being
in Southern States of India, the produce finds its market mainly in
large North Indian cities like Bombay, Calcutta, Delhi, etc.
- The production centers are situated in
the remote villages, with less conveyance and transport facilities.
The harvested produce experiences losses due to rough handling in different
markets and while in transport.
- The marketing system for bananas is not
well organized in India and hence, the produce suffers losses in quality
and quantity before it reaches the consumers.
- As the export of banana from India is
practically nil, the entire produce is consumed internally. Hence, the
prevalent internal marketing system of banana is briefly discussed.
- Before considering the existing situation
in relation to internal marketing, it will be useful to briefly deal
with methods of harvesting, packing and transport to consuming centres.
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Harvesting
- Banana bunches are cut at different stages
of maturity depending on the distance of haulage and the time of consumption.
- Being the polyclonal system of cultivation
practiced by cultivators, it is difficult to stipulate a common harvest
index for all the varieties. Usually, visual judging is the only criterion
adopted by the farmers to fix the stage of harvest.
- Bananas meant to be marketed locally are
harvested at full maturity. In Robusta and other Dwarf Cavendish varieties
cutting after 90'days of shooting or at full three quarters maturity
is adopted.
- In the case of bananas transported to
long distance markets, harvesting is done after 80 days at three quarters
full maturity.
- The method of harvesting assumes great
importance when bananas are to conform to export specification like
absence of cuts and bruises. That banana bunches are carefully cut with
sharp knives and very often two men are employed to cut a large bunch.
- In Maharashtra and Gujarat, harvesting
of banana is done by persons having specialised experience. In most
of the states bunches are cut from the stem by means of a bill-hook
or a sickle.
- The harvesting of the crop in a particular
field is not done at one time, since bunches produced by all the plants
do not attain uniform maturity.
- Every day, bunches are harvested which
have developed fully and produce a metallic sound when tapped with the
back of the nail.
- Immature fruits, which are angular in
the beginning, became more roundish as they mature. It takes about 3
1/2 to 4 months to mature fully from the date of emergence of inflorescence
depending upon varieties.
- The fruits are harvested at 80-90 per
cent maturity.
- In Tamilnadu fruits reach the place of
distribution within a day or two from the assembling centre.
- Monthan is harvested about 7-10 days before
it is actually distributed. In the case of Poovan also, it is found
to have better shelf life than others.
- Mauritius variety, which has to be distributed
within four days after smoking is harvested just a week before the stage
of actual distribution.
- Hill bananas and Rasthali are harvested
at about 80-90 per cent maturity as they are not able to stand for a
period more than a week to 10 days after harvest.
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Storage
- Storage of bananas during the marketing
process occurs at different levels, viz. Producers level, assembling
level, wholesaler level and retailer level.
- Being a perishable commodity, the fruits
are disposed off in all these stages very quickly, and as such are not
stored for long periods in general.
- Producers do not store the produce. They
usually harvest the produce only on the day of marketing or at most
a day prior to it.
- At assembling centres or village markets
also, the bunches are sold on the same day on which the produce gets
assembled.
- There is usually no delay in moving the
produce from the assembling centres to wholesalers.
- The wholesalers inturn, ripen the fruits
in smoke house depending upon the estimated demand in succeeding days.
- The fruits which are given smoke treatment
for ripening are disposed off to the retailers on the same day when
it is taken out of ripening chambers.
- These fruits may be stored for 2 or 3
days depending on the ripeness. The retailers are usually hotels, small
petty shop keepers, and hand cart a time from the wholesaler which he
can sell on one or two days.
- Hence, at retailer level also the storage
for the produce is the minimum.
- Thus, the mature fruits harvested from
gardens are sold as ripened fruits usually within a period of 7 to 10
days after harvest.
- During the peak seasons when markets are
flooded with bananas, the bunches are to be stored for days together
for which the modern facilities like cold storage are not available
in many markets.
- Hence, a loss of about 1 O to 1 5 per
cent due to over ripening, fungal deterioration etc., will be taking
place before the produce reaches the ultimate consumers.
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Assembling
- Assembling of bunches is an important operation. The judging of harvesting
maturity of individual bunches in a garden is a labour intensive process
as there won't be any uniformity in maturation within the same variety
grown in a garden.
- Harvesting and assembling the produce for the market is done by
- Growers
- Pre-harvest contractors
- Village merchants.
i) Growers
- Banana growers in South India are mainly marginal farmers who do
not find it profitable to harvest the crop at periodical intervals and
transport to markets as the bunches usually do not attain harvestable
maturity uniformly due to variation in sucker size and variation in
fertlisation, irrigation, etc.
- Unless the produce is assembled at the village level itself, transport
charges will be high and hence the role of intermediaries. The grower's
share in assembling of the produce will be only upto 10 per cent in
India.
ii) Pre-harvest contractors
- Pre-harvest contractors are the main assembling agents in the case
of bananas. They conduct periodical visits to the banana garden of individual
small holdings and enter into contract with these farmers by advancing
money to purchase the bunches.
- Hence, it will be either the contractor or his subagents who will
conduct the harvesting of bunches from the small holdings, assemble
them and transport to the main markets.
- Pre harvest contractors operate in and around all the district markets.
They are the main financing agents for the farmers.
- Even before all the bunches emerge in the garden, these contractors
enter into contract with farmers for the
- Contract is sometimes fixed on the basis of bunches. Suppose in a
garden having about 1000 plants, contract is fixed only for 900 bunches,
as only that number of good bunches alone are expected.
- The choice of elimination of any bunch rests with the contractor as
he will never mark the 100 bunches excluded from the contract, hence
till his 900 bunches are harvested, the full bunches in the garden remain
to be that of contractors.
- These merchants advance money to cultivators at the time of entering
into contract and go on paying as and when bunches are harvested. Some
of the contractors pay only at the end.
- These pre-harvest contractors are the main assembling agency accounting
for nearly 80 per cent of the quantity assembled.
iii) Village merchant
- Village merchant accounts for about 10 per cent of the total produce
assembled. These merchants operate in villages near about shandies.
These merchants collect the produce and then have it sold at shandies.
- These merchants either make outright purchases on cash basis or act
as commission agents.
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Sorting
- In Maharashtra
and Gujarat, bananas are sold by weight and in Tamil Nadu by bunches
or by numbers.
- Sale by numbers appears to be the practice
in Andhra Pradesh, West-Bengal and many other states. Hence, sorting
of bunches/fingers into different grades and marketing are not
practiced in India by the growers.
- Even at the assembling centres,
disposal is as bunches and as such no sorting is resorted to.
- At the retail level only, fruits are
sorted according to different sizes. In the case of hill bananas, sorting
is done at harvest stage itself as the produce is sold as fingers, not
as whole bunches.
- No standard grades are followed for sorting
of fruits. The wholesalers, at times, sort their bunches based on number
of hands and number of fingers.
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Packing
- In India the bunches are marketed naked.
There is no practice of using any special type of containers.
- The bunches are as such loaded or unloaded
from the carts, lorries or rail wagons.
- When the produce is to be sent to far
off places, through lorry, the individual bunches are packed with banana
waste leaves which served as cushion in between the bunches and consequently
the damage to the fingers during transit is reduced.
- There is no unit of packing as transport
and sales are effected on the basis of number of bunches.
In the case of hill bananas, the bunches after harvest are split up
into different hands possibly due to
easiness of transport on mule or ponies.
- Hill bananas are, packed in gunny bags
each having a capacity of 400 to 600 fruits. If the fruits are to be
transported over a long distance, generally no packing is undertaken
and the fruits are sent in loose form.
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Transportation
- The harvested bananas from the gardens
located in villages are usually transported as head loads, on ponies,
as cart loads and as lorry loads, the transport for interstate trade
are mainly effected through lorry services and railway wagons.
- Due to difficulties faced by wholesalers
to arrange wagons, that too in correct time, lorry transport is more
depended in India.
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Distribution
- The distribution is effected through growers or producers, preharvest
contractors, whole salers, commission agents and retailers.
- The channel of movements in the different distribution system are
depicted in the figure. The most common market channels seen in banana
trade in India are:
- Producer -wholesaler -retailer -consumer
- Producer -village merchant -wholesaler -retailer -consumer
- Producers -village merchants -retailer -consumer
- Producer -retailer -consumer
- Producer -consumer
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Preparation For Marketing
- The majority of cultivators sell their
produce to pre-harvest contractors in advance and the harvesting and
preparation for market is done by merchant contractors only.
- Usually bananas are not given any special
post-harvest treatments such as dipping in fungicidal solutions etc.
- Since the quality awareness has not been
sufficiently developed to admit higher price differential for treated
bananas, it may not be worthwhile to adopt expensive post-harvest treatment
techniques in all cases of internal marketing.
- Similarly, the bunches are harvested,
assembled and transported as such without dehanding in India.
- The separation of individual hands for
sale are done at retailer level only. Till then the bunches in toto
are handled as a single unit.
- The wholesale merchants at the consumer
markets will prepare their bunches for marketing.
- The bunches are staked in smoke houses
or pits for 24 hours in summer and 48 hours in winter for inducing uniform
ripening, before they are exhibited for sale on the days to follow.
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