What is Banana?

Banana is the second most important crop after mango. Banana is preferred for table and processing variety because of its year-round availability, affordability, flavour, multiple varieties, nutrition, and health benefits. Banana has a strong export potential as fruit and processed foods, including banana pulp or juice.

A banana is an elongated, edible fruit – botanically a berry – produced by several kinds of large herbaceous flowering plants in the genus Musa. In some countries, bananas used for cooking may be called "plantains", distinguishing them from dessert bananas. 

The fruit is variable in size, color, and firmness, but is usually elongated and curved, with soft flesh rich in starch covered with a rind, which may be green, yellow, red, purple, or brown when ripe. The fruits grow upward in clusters near the top of the plant. Almost all modern edible seedless (parthenocarp) bananas come from two wild species – Musa acuminata and Musa balbisiana. The scientific names of most cultivated bananas are Musa acuminata, Musa balbisiana, and Musa × paradisiaca for the hybrid Musa acuminata × M. balbisiana, depending on their genomic constitution. 

Amazing Production of Banana

Precise figures on total global banana production are difficult to obtain as banana cultivation is often conducted by smallholder farmers and traded in the informal sector, which is often untraceable. For example, 70-80 percent of production in Africa are local bananas that have been present on the continent for over 1000 years. Available data indicate that between 2000 and 2017, global production of bananas grew at a compound annual rate of 3.2 percent, reaching a record of 114 million tonnes in 2017, up from around 67 million tonnes in 2000. 

Approximately 5.6 million hectares of land are dedicated to banana production globally, according to latest available data from 2017 (FAOSTAT). The rapid expansion of the banana industry is evident in the evolution of the harvested area over time, which amounted to 3.6 million hectares in 1993 and 4.6 million hectares in 2000 (FAOSTAT). 

Bananas are predominantly produced in Asia, Latin America and Africa. The biggest producers are India, which produced 29 million tonnes per year on average between 2010 and 2017, and China at 11 million tonnes. Production in both countries mostly serves the domestic market. Other large producers are the Philippines with an annual average of 7.5 million tonnes between 2010 and 2017, and Ecuador and Brazil both at an average of 7 million tonnes.