A hard summer and insufficient rainfall have sent banana production in the state into a tailspin, to the dismay of growers in Nendran, India. The productivity of most crops, including coconut, slid drastically over the past few years. only bananas recorded upward growth until inclement weather intervened.

Banana production dropped from 1,292.41 tonnes in 2015-16 to 1,218.15 tonnes in the last fiscal, says statistics with the unio Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare. On the other hand, national production clocked 30,439.33 tonnes in the previous fiscal compared to 29,134 tonnes in 2015-16.

Accounting for 51 per cent of the total cultivation, the Nendran variety has been hit hard. Last season, it was priced at Rs 56 a kilo and is expected to increase by10 to 20 per cent this year.