The third edition of the festival will witness farmers get hands on training on effective ways to reduce post-harvest loss and improve the brand value of their produce
Danfoss India, the Indian subsidiary of Danfoss Global, the leader in 
climate and energy space in collaboration with Confederation of Indian Industries (CII) is hosting the 3rd Edition of the ‘Tamil Nadu Banana Festival’ for all stakeholders in the Agriculture and Cold Chain sectors in the State.
While the first and second edition of the Banana Festival focused on improving productivity, the third edition’s focus is on sensitizing farmers about the need to move from ‘Bunches to Boxes’. It involves educating them from the harvest period on how to ensure the produce reaches the consumer with the right quality and minimum loss/degradation using appropriate technology and infrastructure.
Since its inception three years ago, the Tamilnadu Banana Festival has proved helpful in the restructuring of the unorganised banana farming sector in the State into a focused and structured sector, which in turn, has helped banana farmers increase produce and reap subsequent benefits. Empowered at such educative platforms, farmers from small clusters have come together to form an organisation, which has emerged as an effective model advancing access to investments, technology and markets. 150 leading farmers from across the state (50 small farmer cluster groups have been formed within the state) have been identified through the Tamilnadu producers company who will be given hands on training/exposure during the conference on effective ways to reduce post-harvest loss. The formation of the producer company will enable better bargaining power and improved margins. quality of their produce improves as collectively they share best practices.
With corporates increasingly strengthening their partnership with the government, the industry stands to benefit tremendously. Companies like Danfoss are keenly working towards improving efficiency in the farm-to-fork supply chain by educating stakeholders on best practices thereby improving farmer revenues. Energy efficient applications from Danfoss help in maintaining the optimum temperature for storing bananas for longer periods of time thus reducing costs and energy consumption. In fact, the Company closely works with farmers in Tamilnadu through knowledge sharing sessions on post-harvest technologies which help them increase their income by saving on operational expenses.
The movement of Banana from the field to the consumer is where maximum loss occurs due to inefficient practices and non-existent infrastructure. Currently the capacity of cold storages, pack houses and ripening chambers for banana only accounts for 8% of production. However, it is estimated that by appropriate use of technology, especially cold chain solutions, we can attempt to reduce losses by 10 to 12% which can help save Rs. 1500 crores of crop value. By investing in the much needed cold chain infrastructure Tamil Nadu can increase earnings of farmers by 40%, ensure consumers get scientifically ripened fruit with right nutrition values and better self-life; and also create huge opportunities for processing of Banana products.
“We have been witnessing a progressive mindset change among the farmers in the region who are willing to come forward and reap the benefits of automated technologies. This is very encouraging given the volumes the State generates and the subsequent potential for export. A crucial step in creating leadership in the banana market globally for Tamilnadu is branding and marketing which will be discussed in this festival. Possible overseas markets thrown open to Indian banana are Iran, Saudi, Singapore, Japan, Russia and Malaysia i.e after tapping the domestic market demand which in itself is huge. Right now, despite India’s output and being the largest producer of the fruit in the world, only 0.4 percent of the total produce is being exported”, said, Mr. Ravichandran Purushothaman, President, Danfoss India and Chairman, CII Chennai Chapter.
CII has further instituted a study to understand how the Banana producers within these clusters are adapting to new technology. A report on the same, co-sponsored by Danfoss will be released at the event this year which will indicate the impact of this initiative on farmers who have gained better know how through the meetings and festivals and are trying to understand how to best implement these practices.
