Landless Labourers are Now Entrepreneurs

The banana value chain made steady progress in 2024, supported by strategic initiatives and the dedication of its producers. 

The expertise of our producers and competencies across the value chain helped maintain consistent production. TMBT was established as a women’s agricultural labourers collective in Tirunelveli district, TamilNadu as a backward integration model, enabling traceability in raw material supply to source banana bark directly from farmers. This initiative seeks to eliminate middlemen who were purchasing the bark at low prices and then selling them to other traders who sold the raw material to GreenKraft for basket making and rope-making enterprises at a higher cost.

Through the hard skills training provided in banana bark harvesting, these women gained the ability to chop down banana trees in the fields. After leaving the trees to dry for a few days, they returned to split the trees and extract the banana bark. This bark is then supplied to banana bark enterprises at fair prices and high quality. This process not only offers better quality banana bark at reasonable rates, but it also allows enterprises to purchase the bark in the right season and store it for use during the off-season, ultimately saving on cost. TMBT sourced banana barks not only from Tirunelveli district, but also from HD Kote in Karnataka during the off-season in Tamil Nadu, thereby ensuring a steady supply to the production units and creating revenues over millions of rupees.

Parvathi, Pechiammal, Essikiammal, and Selvi and others are leaders of TMBT who successfully lead collectives of 10 to 15 women, each spreading out their reach, sourcing banana barks directly from farmers across and outside the district and selling within the state.