Prism Reflections: The recipe that puts Sindh's thirstiest crop on less water

Agronomists just figured out a new way to grow the famous household fruit, the banana. This recipe uses half the water, saves 57 per cent of irrigation water, and also lifts yields by 12 to 23pc.

Local practices like flat-basin irrigation and erratic watering schedules push annual use up to nearly 5000mm. A banana crop actually needs only 2000mm of evapotranspiration in its first year, rising to 3500mm from the second to fifth years. The suggested furrow method changes that math: about 1228mm a year, at a 50pc soil moisture deficit level, roughly half the usual bill and a genuine alternative for Sindhi farmers. It also solves the salinity problem, since the method works with canal water instead of the often-saline groundwater farmers currently rely on, as long as watering is scheduled properly so salts don’t build up in the soil.

Prep time: 5–6 months to a proper mat

Yield: One mat per pit; a mother plant and two suckers

A disc harrow, a cultivator, a laser leveller, a spade, banana corms, farmyard manure (half a kilo per pit), NPK fertiliser........

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