Varsha’s initiative in zero-waste management of banana plants gains widespread attention

Varsha, an MTech grad, started Aakruthi Eco Friendly Enterprises to manage banana plant waste. She produces handicrafts & edible items, & uses solid & liquid waste for compost & organic fertilizer. Her products have buyers from cities & local villagers. She's supported by her family & travels 45 km to her plantation.

Little did Varsha, an MTech graduate from Oxford College of Engineering in Bengaluru, expect her modest initiative in zero waste management of banana plants at Ummattur in Chamarajanagar district would fetch her widespread attention and bring her eco-friendly handicraft and edible items under the media glare on Sunday.

Minutes after Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday cited her example among the people who had started their own enterprise inspired by his monthly radio talk ‘Mann Ki Baat’, Ms. Varsha began receiving phone calls from media persons curious to know about her work.

Ms. Varsha told The Hindu she had heard about how a farmer from Tamil Nadu was coping with the waste management challenges during COVID-19 in one of the ‘Mann Ki Baat’ episodes and was motivated to take it up in her banana plantation at Ummattur.

“Even we faced a similar waste management problem in our banana plantation during the pandemic. So, I studied about how best can we make use of the trunk or stem of banana plant instead of discarding it as waste after harvesting the fruit,” she said.

Instead of throwing the trunk of the plant after harvesting the bunch of bananas from it, Ms. Varsha’s Aakruthi Eco Friendly Enterprises now produces not only handicraft items such as fibre purses, bags, yoga mats, tablemats, and pen stands and edible items such as pickles, juice, and candies but also organic fertilizer. “It is a zero-waste management of banana plants after harvest,” she said.

While the fibre extracted from the outer part of the trunk is used for producing handicrafts, the inner core, also called the pseudo stem, is used for making edible items.

“During fibre extraction, we get solid waste as well as liquid waste. While the solid waste is converted into compost, liquid waste is a source of organic potash that is used as liquid fertilizer,” she said adding that organic fertilizer is used mainly in her own fields spread around eight acres.