Banana Tissue culture

Pakistan produces banana on about 35 thousand ha with a total production of 154.8 thousand tons giving an average yield of 4 tons per ha, which is only one-fifth of the world average. Banana is a major and important fruit crop of Pakistan. Majority (93%) area and production (83%) of Pakistan lies in Sindh province, followed by Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KPK), Baluchistan and Punjab. Availability of healthy planting material is major limiting factor for maximum yield. Banana Bunchy Top virus is the most devasting disease on banana crop which reduces the yield up to 90% in some area of Sindh. Moreover, there was only one variety in the country which was used for commercial cultivation with an average yield of 4.0 tons per ha. In Sindh the cultivation of Musa Cavendish Banana (Basrai) variety is more than 98%, which is under serious threat of BBTV and PANAMA diseases. PARC intervene and started the production of virus free planting material through tissue culture and introduced new banana varieties having ten hold higher yield than the already existing variety (Basrai).
 

Achievements:

• Produced the 1.0 million virus free banana plantlets and distributed to the farmers in Sindh.
• In vitro multiplication of selected four banana varieties and their evaluation against agronomic and stress parameters.
• Commercialization of banana tissue culture technology in collaboration with private sector.
• Approval of two of NIGAB-1 & NIGAB-2 from Sindh seed council.
• Completed DUS of NIGAB-3 & NIGAB-4 with FSCR&D.