Success story of making Banana Fiber from waste

Introduction

Initiated by 25 members of Maa Saraswati Village Organization of Ishanagar Block in Lakhimpur Kheri district, the Banana Fibre Production unit has been established keeping in view the traditional agricultural practice of the inhabitants as well as the availability of raw materials for production, which in this case, is abundantly produced-bananas. 

The climatic conditions favour banana crop production. Further, coupled with the demand for sustainably sourced produce, this intervention has worked as a boon for the villagers. Production of banana fibre, though requires a large number of human resources, is not labour-intensive. It is a profitable venture providing employment to people and poses no threat to environment, thus making it a sustainable environment-friendly intervention.

Technique and Usage

Banana fibre is basically the fibre obtained by peeling its trunk after the fruit is harvested. All varieties of banana plants have fibres in abundance. After the fruit production, the trunk of the banana plant is thrown as agricultural waste to a large extent. With the help of a machine, this residue is cut into pieces and processed to make fibres. The fibres are then dried and stored for sale. The fibre can be used as a raw material for producing environment friendly products such as handbags, floor mats, belts, apparels including sari, upholstery, carpets etc. 

Nowadays, people are more inclined to buy environment-friendly products due to increased awareness on environmental concern. However, the supply of such products in the market is generally not adequate for meeting the demand. Taking this fact into account, banana fibre enterprise has a huge potential for doing a good business in the market by ensuring the continuous supply. This is not very difficult given that Ishanagar block has a large number of farmers who are into banana crop cultivation. The availability of raw materials can be ensured while also catering to the huge demand for banana fibre. Further, as this intervention requires involvement of a large number of human resources while even being less labour-intensive, it attracts the local unemployed youth to get involved and earn a living for themselves. The SHG members are implementing this with a vision to become self-independent through this enterprise activity.

Initiative

With the assistance received from the Uttar Pradesh State Rural Livelihoods Mission, the banana fibre processing machine was set up in Samaisa village of Ishanagar block. 25 SHG members of Maa Saraswati Village Orgnaization took the initiative to start the activity. In view of the significance of this unit in the village and the need for upscaling, it has been decided to expand this enterprise in other Village Organizations as well. After the initial decision to set-up the production unit, the SHG members had to face financial challenges for procuring the machines. This was resolved by taking loans from the Cluster Level Federation (CLF) and the machines were procured from Surat, Gujarat.

Banana fibre finds a lot of use in the apparel and paper industry. After passing the quality test, the unit now, is getting bulk orders from industrial hubs such as Surat, Ahmedabad, Kanpur etc. Recently it has received an order for 200kg of banana fibre from an Ahmedabad-based company. The product has also been registered on India Mart for online sale and online buyers have started reaching out to the production unit with an average price ranging from Rs. 150 to 200 per kilogram of banana fibre.

Source: Inspirational Stories of Aatmanirbhar Rural Women