Waste to Value-a unique approach to create rural business enterprises in textiles, paper & composite materials from agriculture waste of banana

unfunded

The purpose of this project is to improve the income of farmers from the agri-waste and concurrently create micro and small businesses on waste to wealth value chain for rural youth. A farmer gets about 2-4 lakhs of revenue from an acre banana crop. After each harvest, the stem is redundant and usually discarded, burned or ploughed back into the soil. Andhra Pradesh alone produces 1482 lakhs stems per year from 60,000 hectares of banana cultivation. With the available technologies, several products of value can be prepared. An acre of land yields 500 kilos of fiber from 1000 stems. Each kilo of fiber costs about Rs. 100. An additional income of about Rs. 50000 for the farmer or an entrepreneur from an acre. With Banana fibers, textile fabrics, window blinds, curtains, table sheets, door mats and baskets are made. Along with fiber, juice [sap] is recovered with extraction. Banana sap is a wonderful mordant used to dye the fabric materials-cotton and banana fibers and a suitable alternative to harmful chemical mordants. The textile industry buys sap at Rs. 3 -5 per litre. Around 12000 litres [40percentage of 50 tons] per acre, which is Rs. 36000. Pulp, another byproduct from banana stem, is a raw material for paper industry. This pulp can also be converted into vermicompost. Each kilo of vermicompost is about Rs. 5-8. One acre of pseudo-stem gives about 18 tons of pulp which is about 5*18000=90,000. In total, a farmerorentrepreneur can get Rs. 176000 per acre of agro-waste.