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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