Five-type of Bananas developed through tissue culture of flowers after five-year research by Professor Dr Anowar Hossain of the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology of Rajshahi University have got a great popularity from the farmers of 64-districts of the country. These newly developed bananas are highly nutritious, hybrid, profitable and short-span yielding that is why the demand for saplings of these bananas has increased countrywide. Researchers informed that cultivation of these types of bananas earns 30 to 40 percent more profit than the bananas produced through the conventional method. They also opined that it is possible to earn a huge foreign currency by producing and exporting these types of 'uniform' bananas.
Prof Anowar Hossain in an interview mentioned in 2017 that he took a project to invent saplings of banana through tissue culture under the financial assistance of University Grants Commission and the RU administration and successfully developed various types of tissue-cultured saplings of bananas through in-vitro micropropagation process.
He said, the tissue cultured saplings produce more bananas than the bananas produced through the conventional method which is also 30-40 percent more profitable. Moreover, bananas harvested through tissue cultured plants are produced 2-3 months before those are produced through using the conventional methods.
Professor Anowar Hossain mentioned further that banana is the fourth producible fruit in the world and it is produced in all tropical and subtropical countries including in Bangladesh. It is possible to earn a huge amount of foreign currency by exporting bananas to various winter-prone countries including South America, The Philippines and India. He further said, due to conventional methods of farming, farmers of our country can not produce export-quality bananas. But, he added, these-type of tissue cultured saplings and bananas are produced by using modern farming techniques which are 100% free from all germs and diseases.
Prof Dr Tanjima Yeasmin, Chairman of the Dept of Biochemistry and Molecular Science of RU in this connection said through the cultivation of these newly invented bananas we are not only getting the improved variety of bananas but also the bananas with high nutrition. Cultivation of these newly invented bananas are being spread throughout the country, she added.
Mozdar Hossain, Deputy Director of the Department of Agriculture Extension, Rajshahi, informed, the saplings of banana developed through tissue culture by RU researchers have already got a wide demand from among the farmers of the country. These hybrid varieties of bananas mature in a short span of time and are also ripened in a short time and these bananas are produced round the year. There would be a revolution in cultivation of bananas by spreading these-type of bananas throughout the country and at the same time , these bananas would be exported abroad to earn forex, he mentioned further.