Successfully propagated the king's bananas

La Ba is the specialty banana of Lam Dong, the leading banana brand in Vietnam, once offered to the Nguyen Dynasty king, provided to senior French officials.

(Photo: Ethan Meleg)

Currently this rare banana variety is degenerating, so scientists have to research and preserve genetic resources.

Cultivated in La Ba (Phu Son commune, Lam Ha) in the early 50s of the last century and after only a short time became famous by the match of yellow fruits, flexible, sweet and fragrant. Local people have taken the place of La Ba for this type of banana.

La Ba banana variety was transferred from Lam Ha to cultivated in some districts and towns (Da Lat, Duc Trong, Don Duong) with soil, air, height . similar and well adapted.

The garden has never had to worry about the output, because by the harvest time, traders come to the garden to cover all products for about 4,000 VND / kg, higher than other types of bananas from 200-400 VND / kg. La Ba bananas are supplied to supermarkets in Ho Chi Minh City and many other provinces and exported to China at double or higher prices, but traders often do not gather enough goods to export by area, output is too low. .

Currently, Lam Dong has only a few dozen hectares of genuine La Ba bananas, reducing more than 70% compared to recent decades, many places have no banana gardens but only a few clusters alternating with other crops.

The cause of banana productivity and quality is seriously reduced is due to the aging and degenerative diseases, pestilent diseases, backward cultivation process . Panama mushrooms make the banana leaves wilt, dry trees gradually cause the garden to be tight white mass of banana gardens to avoid spreading disease.

Banana plants are also quite susceptible to Sigatoka leaf spot disease, stem rot disease caused by Pseudomonas solanacearum, sclerosis and wilt caused by Fusarium.

In an effort to apply biotechnology to improve banana varieties La Ba, Dr. Duong Cong Kien and the staff of the University of Science and Technology (VNU-HCM) have succeeded in propagating by tissue culture and have produced goods. Thousands of disease-free seedlings follow orders of a business in Da Lat.

Duc Trong district's Department of Agriculture and Rural Development is also cooperating with the Southern Fruit Research Institute (NCCC) and a number of research units to restore and develop La Ba specialty banana varieties.

Mr. Hoang Van Hung - Duc Trong district's Department of Agriculture and Rural Development said that the unit has organized a competition in the whole province to determine exactly the type of pure Latino specialty bananas and collect and select banana plants with morphology and quality. Good quality made the first line.

Samples of these banana plants were sent to NCCR Institute for disease assessment by ELISA and PRC methods and then propagated in many ways (splitting buds from mother plants, propagating by tubers .) but most effectively breeding tissue culture with advanced technology process to obtain a generation of elite, purebred, disease-free seedlings; At the same time, it is possible to multiply rapidly in large quantities to reduce the cost of seedlings.

La Ba banana has a high competitive advantage because it is a short-term tree, after 1 year, there are fruits, it takes less care, gives harvest all year round, it is both delicious and nutritious (many Vitamin A and Vitamin C together). minerals such as Ca, P, Fe, Na, K).

Therefore, the agricultural sector organized many demonstration sites to transfer the technical process of cloning and propagation of this kind of banana to farmers; at the same time, build a trademark, regulations on the use of trademarks and complete registration dossiers with the National Office of Intellectual Property; on the other hand will attract investors to the field of procurement and processing to serve the domestic market and export.

La Ba banana is quite similar to the old, old, old and old bananas . and in fact, many traders mixed the above bananas for sale, causing the prestige of banana banana banana and banana.

Therefore, scientists recommend a number of characteristics to identify La Ba bananas: High trees from 3 - 3.2 m, waist of leaves and leaf sheaths are purple, long fruit chambers, long and slender bananas and slightly curved; The shell is thick and shiny, when ripe, it is bright yellow.

In the winter or when it rains heavily, banana peels have many tiny black dots like speckled eggs.