The Philippine banana chips industry has become one of the country’s emerging export winners. The raw materials for banana chips production are based on two cultivars, namely Saba and Cardaba. One of the major problems besetting the industry is the lack of raw materials for processing banana chips.
Mass propagation and dissemination of Saba strains with short stature will result in earlier fruit production as well as less time exposed to pests and diseases and natural disasters such as typhoons. This would increase the productivity of the farms to be planted with the varieties of Saba. To make Saba banana production more profitable to small-hold farmers by using strains with short stature and early maturing, this project conducted field performance of four selected strains of ‘Saba’ evaluated in six banana (‘Saba’ cultivar) growing provinces of the country. These provinces include Isabela, Nueva Vizcaya, Laguna, Oriental Mindoro, Davao, and Butuan. Results showed that mass propagation of selected lines was possible, although some optimizations and modifications had to be done from the usual.
