9 - Fruit Crops

Summary

Fruit crops play a major role as protective foods. A variety of fruit crops, both exotic and indigenous, are cultivated in North Malabar region. Various indigenous practices pertaining to varieties, agro techniques, crop protection, and product utilisation are found in these crops.

Banana

Banana is the most popular fruit in Kerala. Since it is an annual fruit crop that can be planted in any season, the fruits are available throughout the year and have a prominent role in the socio-cultural functions. The festival at Andaloor kavu in Thalassery of Kannur district is unique with the offering of banana bunches by the devotees, which after the darshan are given with the prasadam mainly prepared with banana and beaten rice. Madikkai grama panchayath in Kasaragod district and Patyam grama panchayath in Kannur district are famous for best quality nendran banana.

Varieties

Many indigenous varieties of banana, each providing different requirements are cultivated in the North Malabar region. The details are summarised in Table 5.

Sucker Selection and Preparation

Three and four-months-old disease free sword suckers with narrow leaf blades (locally called as kathikkannu) are selected for planting (Fig. 20). Pseudostem is cut back to a length of 15 to 25 cm from the corm, and old roots are removed.