Author: Sanjay Kumar Jha
Publication: India Today
Date: June 27, 2005
Introduction: Woman in Vaishali
district learn to extract a few extra rupees from the banana plantation
A little over a year ago, a clutch
of village women from Vaishali district in Bihar chanced upon each other.
Their talk expectedly revolved around their plight. Mostly wives of farmers
in the banana-cultivating belt of Sughai Jamalpur, Siduari and Panapur
Langa, they had a common woe: the repeated failure of the crop. The situation
was desperate and the women knew they would have to somehow make the most
of it, especially when the harvest was meagre. How about putting the trunks
of the banana trees to some use, asked one of them.
It was an unlikely question but
one that has yielded many answers today. At a time when survival itself
was a struggle for the farmers of Vaishali, an initiative by the women
of the area to make household items out of fibre extracted from banana
trunks spelt a sudden turnaround. "The enterprise has not only brought
kudos to the women but also transformed their living standards," acknowledges
Pancham Kumar Singh, director of the Hariharpur-based Banana Research Institute
(BRI), recalling how the women had initially approached him with their
idea.
Convinced, the institute procured
machinery at a cost of Rs 25,000 from Hyderabad and has so far trained
over 500 women to extract banana fibre. Earlier, banana trunks were either
dumped or at best used as compost after harvesting the fruit. Now, farmers
sell the trunks at Rs 5 per piece to women engaged in extracting fibre
from them. BRI has opened a procurement centre at Hajipur where banana
fibre is purchased at Rs 60-100 per kg depending on the quality of the
product. A variety of items are made from the fibre, ranging from tableware,
flower baskets and wall hangings to chappals, handbags and rakhis. A suitable
market with attractive prices was also established for the finished products
which are not only aesthetic and light but also economical and biodegradable.
The use of banana tree trunks for
such purposes is not new. Banana-growing areas in south India have long
been making such products. In Bihar, however, the traditional plantations
refused to keep pace with the times. Inadequate rainfall was compounded
by lack of government support, reducing rich banana belts like Vaishali-it
once prided itself at producing 110 varieties of bananas, notably the chinia
kela and the muthiya kela-to a pathetic state.
The newfound industry is changing
all that though, ensuring the villagers a decent livelihood. With saris
being next in the line of products being made from banana fibre, things
can only get better.
