Considering growing some bananas
The land on which our farm stands is quite underutilised. There is about 2 – 3 acres which can be put to more productive use.
This time around, we want to look at our capabilities and marketing with an eagle eye before making any investments. So far the only commercial attempts at “pertanian” by Zai has been in mangoes and bananas. The mangoes attempt fizzled out due to an inability to secure a reliable market. The attempt on the bananas was however a reasonable success, and very valuable lessons have been learned. In addition relationships have been established with buyers.
Hence our zeroing in on bananas, more specifically the “berangan” variety.
Don’t they look delicious?
Zai and two of his friends grew pisang on a 6 acre piece of land near our farm. The project had its ups and downs. Over the project life, a sort of a manual has been prepared with the lessons learnt.
Zai’s maiden banana project.
We intend to replant pisang berangan on this piece of land. Starting with 3 acres first and a little later on the second 3 acres. I have discussed with and outlined to Zai the terms of my participation. He will be discussing them with his friends and should give me their answer in the next few days.
If there are no changes then it should be all systems go.
The tissue cultured seedlings will be purchased from Mr. Sia of Batu Pahat from whom we bought the gaharu seedlings.
There is a lot of advice and guidance that we can get from MARDI and Jabatan Pertanian on the methods of growing etc. Here is one link.
A thousand things could and may go wrong, but Insya’Allah, we believe that Ladang Fatima’s maiden foray into bananas will bear fruit.
Have you ever considered growing Pisang Raja? Getting hold of Pisang Raja is akin to obtaining state secrets! It is ridiculous that a banana so good for cooking and baking is so hard to find. The plethora of goreng pisang sellers presumably will be your market should you venture into this. Otherwise, supply yourselves and start the best gorng pisang shop in town!