Can Indian bananas stop the invasion of colonial Cavendish?

India Today

a day ago

"It takes multiple rounds of various fruit shops to get one's hands on the sweet, small, thin-skinned Chinia Kela in Delhi NCR," says 45-year-old Shweta, who goes by custom and uses only the Indian banana variety for her rituals, puja and other traditional ceremonies. "One needs to know the right fruit seller in a specific locality to get the Chinia Kela. That's how rare the sought-after Chinia Kela is in urban markets far from home," says the Ranchi native who now lives in Noida.advertisementInstead of the Chinia Kela, Shweta says she finds the large, bright yellow, uniformly shaped, and firm-textured Cavendish bananas everywhere. From the grocery shop below her society to local markets and even on e-commerce platforms. It is, by far, the most visible variety of banana now in India.The world's favourite fruit, the banana, loved by the Minions and eaten by millions every day, has today become synonymous with the British-origin Cavendish, and its sub-varieties. It has invaded farms, markets, and tables across the globe. The Cavendish has also made its way deep into India, the world's largest banana producer with over 300 native varieties.
Now, Cavendish bananas line supermarket shelves and perch on handcarts in local bazaars, becoming the go-to fruit for gym-goers and kids grabbing a quick breakfast. Monoculture farming of high-yielding-aesthetic Cavendish has led to its domination across India."Over 70% of the produce from Maharashtra's kela belt is of the Cavendish variety, specifically the commercial type called Grand Nain," Shahid Khan, a banana trader from Jalgaon, Maharashtra's 'Banana City', tells India Today Digital. Around 250 banana-laden trucks roll out daily from the Jalgaon market to states like UP, Bihar, Punjab, Haryana, and Delhi.As Khan points out, the Cavendish invasion has pushed India's indigenous bananas to the margins. At least it looks so in terms of availability, visibility, consumer appeal, preference, and even exports.But Indian varieties, which largely come from their native bastions of Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Assam, West Bengal, and Bihar, are trying not to cede territories of their banana republics.Indian native banana varieties like Chinia, Rasthali, and Nendran are holding steady at 50% of the country's total banana production, and they are even better poised to handle the most pressing threat: climate change.The bigger question, however, is whether India's native bananas could become the next global favourites, just as the British Cavendish is ruling the world, including India?But first, a quick look at how the Cavendish banana invaded the world and came to dominate the Indian palate, market, and trade.
Cavendish bananas accounted for 47% of global banana production between 1998 and 2000, and the vast majority of bananas entered international trade. (Image: Author/India Today)
HOW COLONIAL CAVENDISH BANANA'S INVASION TOOK OVER THE WORLDThe Cavendish banana variety traces its roots to 19th century England, where it was cultivated in the greenhouses of William Cavendish, the 6th Duke of Devonshire. Slowly and silently, it became a global commercial standard.The Cavendish entered India in the latter half of the 20th century and gained popularity after the economy was liberalised. Gradually, it replaced several indigenous varieties across non-traditional banana-growing regions in India.Bananas have been cultivated in India for at least 5,000 years.The banana, the elongated, edible fruit (botanically a berry), originated in the Indo-Malay-Australian region. From there, the fruit gradually made its way to the Indian subcontinent.The Cavendish banana's high yields, uniform appearance, and longer shelf life, appealed to global farmers, traders and urban consumers, despite its spread coming at the cost of the diversity of native varieties the world over.The same happened in India too. Farmers and traders were lured by its high yield.advertisementFor example, a bunch of Kerala's red bananas weighs around 15 kg, while a Cavendish bunch can weigh up to 30 kg.Over the past few decades, the Cavendish banana and its sub-varieties rapidly took over Indian farms and markets, becoming the dominant choice for both growers and consumers.The Cavendish quickly spread to non-traditional banana-growing areas in India like Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, and Gujarat. Behind its popularity were factors like high yield, uniform appearance, and longer shelf life, which made it suitable for both domestic transport and exports.Today, especially in Indian cities and towns, one rarely gets to see the seeded native bananas, which have been replaced by the seedless Cavendish.IN INDIA, WORLD'S LARGEST BANANA PRODUCER, CAVENDISH DOMINATES DESPITE OVERALL GROWTHBut are indigenous banana varieties really in such dire straits?Not quite, asserts Selvarajan Ramasamy, the director of India's premier ICAR–National Research Centre for Banana, Tiruchirapalli.Today, with a production of 38 million metric tonnes, India is the biggest producer of bananas in the world.Banana production in India increased from approximately 29.8 million tons in 2010 to around 34.9 million tons in 2023, and further to 38 million tons in 2024.advertisementSimilarly, the acreage under banana cultivation has grown from about 770 thousand hectares in 2010 to nearly 1 million hectares in 2024, according to data collected by the Ministry of Agriculture, National Horticulture Board, and the ICAR.Despite the positive trends in Indian banana cultivation and production data, Cavendish has come to dominate, largely due to the monoculture of this foreign variety."India's non-traditional banana-growing regions, when they looked to diversify into cash crops, almost exclusively turned to the Cavendish. States like Maharashtra, Gujarat, parts of Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, and even Bihar have, to some extent, adopted the British variety aggressively," Ramasamy, the director of India's apex banana research centre, tells India Today Digital.But the top scientist doesn't paint a doomsday picture for the desi kelas."The reality is, native Indian banana varieties, like Kerala's Nendran and Poovan, Tamil Nadu's Rasthali and Karpooravalli, Assam's Malbhog and Bhimkol, West Bengal's Champa, and Bihar's Chinia and Kothia, aren't as sidelined as some believe," he says.
Both banana production volume and acreage have been steadily rising in India over the past decades. (Image: Author/India Today)
advertisement"Today, India's indigenous banana varieties account for a solid 50% of the nation's total banana production", Ramasamy tells India Today Digital.Yes, Cavendish has made advances in India. In the Jalgaon banana belt, "indigenous varieties like Rasthali, Safed Velchi, and Rajeli still make up around 30% of the produce", Shahid Khan, the banana trader, tells India Today Digital."It's the better quantity, higher yield, and its shelf life, which is why the Grand Nain, a Cavendish variety, accounts for 70% of the trucks rolling out of the belt," says the 35-year-old Khan, who joined the region's profitable banana trade seven years ago.Khan says the indigenous varieties of the region had a bigger share of the overall banana produce. This is parallel to the increase in banana pan-India production and acreage.Over the last few decades, both banana production and acreage in India have steadily increased. While Cavendish has expanded rapidly, especially in newly cultivated areas, native varieties continue to be equally sought after in their traditional strongholds, such as the South, Northeast, and Eastern India. This regional preference has helped native bananas retain nearly 50% of the overall market share, despite the boost in commercial cultivation of Cavendish across the country.Ramasamy gives some striking examples to highlight the surge."In Jalgaon, Maharashtra alone, banana acreage has jumped from 49,000 to 69,000 hectares in recent years. Uttar Pradesh saw a leap from 30,000 to 90,000 hectares in just the last five years. This expansion is largely driven by the Cavendish, prized for its ability to meet rising metro demand with consistency, and for ticking all the boxes: export, appearance, shelf life, and transportability, required," explains Selvarajan Ramasamy.INDIGENOUS BANANAS STILL HOLD HALF OF INDIA'S PRODUCTION SHARE, STEADILYBut despite the Cavendish expansion, India's indigenous varieties have held their ground, even in the face of the colonial varieties' advance.Traditional bastions like Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Assam, West Bengal, Bihar, Odisha, and Meghalaya have resisted the takeover, maintaining steady cultivation and accounting for more than half of India's native banana production.This also has to do with the use of the desi varieties in puja and rituals, and use in subsistence farming.From central Bihar's famed banana belt in Hajipur (Vaishali district), 52-year-old farmer Vikash Chandra Singh says all the land he cultivates is dedicated to native varieties like Chinia and Muthi (suitable for curries)."Even if bananas take 12–15 months to be ready, varieties like Chinia, Malbhog, Alpan, Muthiya and Barsayan are widely grown and hugely popular among farmers," Singh tells India Today Digital."Everyone in this belt grows native bananas, and has been doing so for generations," says Singh, whose family has been farming bananas for decades."There's a lot of demand within the state itself, especially for daily meals, festivals like Chhath, and special occasions that we rarely get to sell outside the state. We supply Bihar year-round."In another traditional banana bastion, the Northeastern states, native bananas dominate big time."In Assam, native banana varieties face no real threat from non-native ones like the Cavendish. Since the latter's gradual introduction in the early 2000s, non-native bananas account for barely 1% of cultivation today, while 99% continues to be dominated by local favourites like Jahaji and Chini Champa," says Bhabesh Deka, the Centre-in-charge for ICAR-All India Coordinated Research Project on Fruits, at the Assam Agricultural University's Jorhat Centre."No foreign variety can replace the natives here, not now, not in the near future. They might carve out a small space eventually, even that will take a long time," Deka tells India Today Digital.
Both banana production volume and acreage have been steadily rising in India over the past decades. (Image: Author/India Today)
In other Northeastern states, native varieties are joined by popular wild types, which are a hit among the locals. In the region, the indigenous varieties are actually the main commercial ones, says Deka, who revealed he recently documented 89 banana germplasm samples, of which 62 were native.Back in Delhi-NCR, the market has recognised that demand follows the consumers' mouths."Bihar and Jharkhand's favourite Chinia kela makes a definite appearance in the markets during Chhath," says Noida-based Shweta. The large Purvanchali population from eastern UP, Bihar, and Jharkhand in the NCR is the factor.Down south, in the native banana bastions of Kerala, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, and Karnataka, indigenous bananas are a big deal. They are woven into their cuisine and culture.In Kerala, there's a saying that every district has its own favourite banana, and all of them are proudly native to the soil. So ingrained are these native varieties to traditions, festivals, lifestyle and daily rituals, that there's little appetite to abandon the indigenous bananas.INDIGENOUS INDIAN BANANAS SHOW RESILIENCE TO CLIMATE THREATSWhile both indigenous banana varieties and the Cavendish (and its sub-varieties) are coexisting in their respective pockets across India, experts like Deka and Ramasamy say it is the native bananas that show greater resilience to threats such as pests, diseases, fungal infections, and the impacts of climate change, including erratic rainfall and rising temperatures.In a recently published report titled 'Going Bananas: How Climate Change Threatens the World's Favourite Fruit', London-based experts associated with Christian Aid warned that bananas are under threat from climate impacts in the near term due to extreme weather events, while rising temperatures and changes to the monsoon pose a long-term threat.
In Bengal, Kola Bou, a banana plant draped in a sari, is ritually bathed and worshipped as the symbolic bride of Lord Ganesha during Durga Puja. That's because the banana plant symbolises fertility and prosperity, and is a symbol of nature's nurturing qualities. (PTI Image)
The report added that indirect climate-related impacts are also being felt. In India, bananas have faced the threat of fungal diseases like the Panama Disease, and weevils, both of which are being exacerbated by climate change. However, the most immediate danger to India's banana-cultivating belts comes from the practice of monoculture cropping, which the Cavendish (and its sub-varieties) are increasingly being opted for by farmers.Given the threats in India looming over both native and non-native varieties, experts believe this makes banana farming vulnerable to emerging diseases and climatic variability.However, traditional strongholds across India continue to cultivate their homegrown varieties, helping maintain the genetic diversity of India's banana ecosystem.Both the experts, Deka and Ramasamy, agree that indigenous banana varieties are better equipped to withstand weather and climate-induced stress.Do India's diverse native banana varieties offer a sustainable alternative to monoculture-dominated cultivation models?"Yes, definitely. The greater the diversity, the better the resilience against both biotic and abiotic stresses. Many native varieties are more resilient and even immune to threats like TR4 of Fusarium wilt and Sigatoka leaf spots," says ICAR's Ramasamy."They also show greater tolerance to fluctuating temperatures, erratic rainfall, and are relatively more resistant to fungal threats like Panama Disease and pests like banana weevils," Ramasamy tells India Today Digital.Assam-based scientist Bhabesh Deka says, "Certainly, indigenous varieties show tolerance to both biotic and abiotic stresses, and can even withstand drought conditions".Yes, the Cavendish has nutritional benefits too, but native varieties offer unique advantages. For instance, Bihar's Chinia is rich in iron and easily digestible for children, while Kerala's Nendran is high in fibre and beta-carotene, making it nutritionally superior to many commercial varieties.
A farmer shows banana plants damaged by strong winds and rain in Tamil Nadu's Kanyakumari. Bananas are under threat from extreme weather events, according to a recent report. (PTI Image)
CAN INDIA'S NATIVE BANANAS TAKE ON THE GLOBAL CAVENDISH DOMINANCE?While Indian native bananas may not match the Cavendish in yield or shelf life, their ecological adaptability, cultural significance, and year-round local demand make them a vital asset in India's fight for climate-resilient, sustainable banana farming, and overall food security.India's desi bananas fare well in pockets of domestic markets and are important for traditional cuisines and rituals. But can they also beat back the colonial Cavendish on the global stage?The now-dominant Cavendish banana rose to global prominence only after the earlier favourite, the Gros Michel, was wiped out by Panama disease. That brings us to the million-dollar question. Can India, the world's largest banana producer, with over 25 indigenous cultivars being grown commercially, take over the world banana market? Can India's native bananas be the next global favourites?While Ramasamy doesn't offer a definite answer, he underscores a key important factor that sets India apart in global banana comparisons."Other banana-exporting nations depend solely on the Cavendish, but in India, a wide diversity is being preserved and actively cultivated," he says.That said, breaking into the global market won't be easy for India's native bananas, as trade in the fruit remains heavily biased toward the uniformity and shelf life of the Cavendish. While Indian varieties have resilience, are flavourful, and have cultural importance on their side, they lack the standardisation exporters demand. But who knows, a little imperfection might just become the next big trend.- Ends