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Nendran banana — Kerala culinary plantain Photo: placeholder pending image-fill pass

Nendran banana — Kerala culinary plantain

Nendran is a tall, AAB-genome group plantain that occupies a unique cultural and culinary position in Kerala and adjoining parts of Tamil Nadu. It is the principal banana of Onam festival meals, the raw material for Kerala's chips industry, and is the only Indian cultivar with significant exports as fresh plantain to Gulf markets. ICAR-NRCB Trichy and Kerala Agricultural University, Thrissur, maintain dedicated breeding and agronomy programmes for the variety, including improved selections such as 'Manjeri Nendran I and II' and 'Changalikodan' (which holds a Geographical Indication tag).

Key characteristics

  • Genome group: AAB, French plantain subgroup
  • Plant height: 10-12 ft (tall, requires staking)
  • Crop cycle: 11-12 months from planting to harvest
  • Bunch weight: 10-15 kg; 5-8 hands of large, angular, long fingers
  • Finger weight: 200-300 g, longest among Indian cultivars
  • Yield: 25-35 t/ha under good management
  • Fruit: starchy when green, used for chips and curries; ripe fruit is consumed steamed or as the Onam-meal "ethakka"
  • Notable selections: Changalikodan (GI tag, Thrissur), Manjeri Nendran I, Manjeri Nendran II, Attu Nendran

Cultivation

Nendran is planted at 7 ft x 7 ft spacing on raised beds or in pits enriched with farmyard manure and lime. Drip-fertigation supplies a balanced NPK schedule with high potassium during bunch filling. Because the variety is tall and bunches are heavy, propping with bamboo or casuarina poles at bunch emergence is essential. Most plantings are managed as a plant-crop-only system; ratoon performance is poor compared with G9 because of pseudostem height and lodging risk. Sucker-based propagation remains common but is being progressively replaced by tissue-cultured material to reduce viral incidence.

Pest and disease profile

Nendran is highly susceptible to Fusarium wilt Race 1 (Banana Fusarium Wilt Foc Tr4), banana bunchy top virus (Banana Bunchy Top Virus) and Sigatoka leaf spots (Banana Sigatoka Yellow Mycosphaerella). Corm weevil (Banana Corm Weevil Cosmopolites) and nematodes are major below-ground constraints in the humid Kerala laterite belt. Mat sanitation, paring and pralinage of suckers and tissue-culture planting material are key preventive measures.

Adoption and use

Nendran dominates banana cultivation in Kerala (Thrissur, Palakkad, Wayanad, Ernakulam districts) and in adjacent Coimbatore and Kanyakumari districts of Tamil Nadu. Beyond fresh consumption and the Onam meal, the variety is the foundation of Kerala's banana chips industry centred at Thrissur and Kozhikode, and supports a small but consistent fresh-fruit export trade to Gulf Cooperation Council countries.

See also: Banana Grand Naine G9 Jain Tc, Banana Monthan Cooking Plantain, Banana Rasthali Silk India, Banana Fusarium Wilt Foc Tr4, Banana Bunchy Top Virus.

References

  1. Nendran — Variety profile. ICAR-National Research Centre for Banana, Trichy.
  2. Nendran banana — Package of practices. Kerala Agricultural University, Thrissur.