Description
Satish Serial Publishing House Catalogue on Banana Germplasm by Auxcilia J M S Aneesa Rani N Kumar L Pugalendhi & Prakash Patil
India is endowed with vast diversity of banana. It is the place of origin and evolution of present day bananas and plantains. It has a number of clonal banana cultivars ranging in diversity from delicate edible diploid acuminata (AA) types to hardy triploid ABB cultivars. More than 100 distinct clones and 40 ecotypes have been reported in Indian subcontinent. Horticultural College and Research Institute, Tamil Nadu Agricultural University maintains nearly 200 germplasm collections. These collections are being used for breeding programme through synthetic diploids as well as individually as donors for breeding programme. Concerted efforts made by the previous breeders resulted in two banana hybrids CO 1, CO 2 and CO 3 and a few pre-release culture H. 531. Conserving germplasm, though considered important, characterization and removing the duplicates is vital, otherwise, it will remain only as a living museum. Hence, an attempt has been made to characterize the germplasm as per the morphological descriptor of Bioversity International (1996). Fifty genotypes characterized were documented in this catalogue.