Rare Pohnpei Bananas are Collected and Shared

by Dr. Lois Englberger

Due to a growing demand all over the island, an inter-agency project based at Pohnpei Agriculture has now been initiated to provide rare banana planting materials to Pohnpei farmers and others. The purpose of the project is to increase production and consumption of these nutrient-rich local varieties.

Through radio announcements, the project was announced and farmers who have these rare bananas and wish to provide planting materials were registered. A meeting was then held on 21 February, 2005, at the Pohnpei Agriculture office with these farmers and staff of Pohnpei Agriculture, College of Micronesia-FSM Land Grant Office, and the Island Food Community of Pohnpei.

Farmers were asked about which of these varieties might be most important to collect, and agreed upon the following: Karat, Utin Iap, Akadahn Weitahta, Mangat, Ihpali, Karat en Iap, Kudud, and Utiak. All of these are rich in provitamin A carotenoids and have special health benefits.

It was carefully explained that good quality planting material was needed, and for each good quality sucker (piece of banana planting material) the farmer would be paid $1. Suckers of lesser quality would be given $0.25 per piece.

All suckers received were also dipped in a chlorox and water mixture to reduce the spread of any disease or pests that a sucker might have.

At the same time the COM-FSM Land Grant extension agents started identifying those farmers who would be interested in receiving planting material and increasing their production of these bananas, possibly also for supplying local markets.

By 9 March, 2005, Eddie Roland of Pohnpei Agriculture had received 656 banana suckers, 610 of these were Karat. Two growers, Markary Amor and Luwis Manuel, provided most of these (450 suckers).

The planting material distribution has now started. To receive a sucker, a person must contact either Pohnpei Agriculture (tel. 320-2400) or COM-FSM Land Grant (tel. 320-5731) and agree to the conditions set out in the Farmers Agreement Form. These conditions include agreeing to plant and maintain the planting materials provided and to cooperate with project staff to supply needed information, access to the farmer's land, and later to provide an equal amount of quality planting material to be distributed to other Pohnpei farmers. In this way it is hoped that markets may soon be selling a greater diversity of banana varieties and home consumption of these bananas also increases.

This project is supported by the Secretariat of the Pacific Community (SPC), International Network for the Improvement of Banana and Plantain, and the SPC Pacific German Regional Forestry Project.