Application Of In Vitro Technology for Propagation of Banana Seedlings

Abstract

Banana is a commodity of high economic value and a staple food of million people in the Tropics. The government's policy in increasing the export of non-oil commodities and diversifying the major food crops has encouraged rapid development of banana plantings . Conventional propagation through sucker beside being slow may yield unhealthy seedlings which will result in a stepwise degeneration of banana productivity. In view of this, cell and tissue culture technology which has proven capable of overcoming such constraints in many crops should be adopted here. Development of micro propagation technology via shoot tip culture of Cavendish banana at R & D Centre for Biotechnology, LIPI, has proven its capability in overcoming this problem. With rapid multiplication, healthy banana seedlings can be produced in large number. Field evaluation showed that vegetative growth and reproduktive deGelopmen t of in vitro-derived banana was normal, uniform and precocious in flowering and fruit-bearing.