DA to train farmers of GCTCV 218 banana

THE Department of Agriculture (DA) in Davao Region will continue training banana farmers who received GCTCV 218 banana seedlings of good agricultural practices especially that this variety has different production protocols as compared to the traditional grand nain Cavendish bananas.

In an earlier interview with Pilipino Banana Growers and Exporters Association (PBGEA) executive director Stephen Antig he said that a group of banana growers from Santo Tomas, Davao del Norte complained to DA Davao Region that the fruits produced by the tissue-cultured GCTCV 218 were not of good quality. The farmers complained of a different taste of the fruit and offered much lower prices for it.

Antig earlier clarified that even before they have started to allow exportation of GCTCV 218, they have already announced to the banana growers that there might be a little difference in taste and shape of the bananas. He said it will only be a matter of market acceptability.

DA Davao Regional High Value Crops Development Program Coordinator Melani Provido supported this saying that only the Chinese market complained of this and all the other countries, like Japan, where the GCTCV 218 bananas were exported did not complain.

She also said that all the bananas exported by Davao Region to other countries are GCTCV 218. These varieties just so happened to be included in some cargos but most of the exported bananas are still grand nain Cavendish bananas.

From last year until recently, DA Davao Region was able to distribute 1 million tissue-cultured banana seedlings to the banana farmers. These are good to cover about 660 hectares of land. They prioritized the farmers whose bananas were affected and damaged by the Fusarium Wilt disease as GCTCV 218’s primary trait is its resistance to Fusarium Wilt.

“For now, what we did, DA [Davao Region] minimized distribution of these tissue-cultured seedlings to banana farmers whose export markets are to China and then we increased distribution of these seedlings to those with export market in Japan instead,” said Provido.

She added the challenge actually lies on how the proper production protocol for GCTCV 218 will be carried by the farmers as it is different from the traditional Cavendish bananas. She said GCTCV 218 will require more care.

“If only the farmers would really strictly follow the proper protocol of taking care of the variant, we think their Chinese market will really accept their bananas,” said Provido.

She added GCTCV 218 seedlings should specifically be planted farther from each other. Generally, the population per hectare is at only around 1,000 to 1,500 trees while with grand nain Cavendish bananas it can reach up to 2,000 trees per hectare. The proper fertilization of this variant should also be taken into consideration as well.

As the same variant had been exported to other countries without complaint, Antig also mentioned that he thinks this may be a matter of special market preference and not necessarily of the general quality of the banana varieties.