To prevent banana produce of farmers from rotting and to help them market their produce and get better price, the West Bengal government has announced a new project.
Agriculture, Food Processing and Horticulture, secretary Nandini Chakraborty told a press meet on Wednesday that there are approximately 3.7 lakh banana farmers in the state and the new project would help them.
Tissue culture banana will be cultivated over an approximate area of 700 hectares in Murshidabad and Nadia districts as part of the new project at a cost of Rs 2322.869 lakh, she said.
The state government will have share of Rs 930.386 lakh in the project, the participating farmers Rs 933.583 lakh and the Keventer Agro group Rs 458.90 lakh.
Chakraborty said the two districts were chosen in the first phase of the project as Nadia and Murshidabad had reported bumper and quality banana production in recent years.
"The project will help keep consistent quality standard of banana which is perishable after four days," the secretary said.
Asked if this could be called a venture on PPP model, Chakraborty said, "if you use the term loosely, then it might be called that."
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