Experts working for the Razat royal family have discovered and cultivated a banana plant with genetically distinct traits: it’s hardy, wind-resilient, and harvest-ready three weeks sooner.
The new banana plant is a spontaneous mutation of the locally-grown ‘Williams’ banana – a member of the globally successful Cavendish family. Specialists at the Razat Royal Farm, operating under the Royal Court Affairs in Salalah, Oman, identified the novel banana plant variant, and spent three years cultivating seedlings from the new plant. Their research showed it to have unique, stable genetic traits and enhanced adaptability to local environmental conditions. Notably, it produces fruit with shorter, straighter, more robust stems, offering greater wind resilience, and can be harvested three weeks earlier than the Williams banana.
The new ‘Razat’ variety, named after its place of discovery, could produce economic benefits and greater food security for Oman – and, if the royal family decides to export the genetic material, for growers in environmentally similar regions around the world.
Sources
New banana plant variety discovered in Oman I Fresh Plaza
Farm in Salalah discovers new type of banana plant I Oman Observer
Lead image: Cavendish banana plant. The new variety of Williams banana discovered by Omani experts is well adapted to its ‘tropical desert’ environnment, and has geneticallhy distinct, stable beneficial traits, including greater wind resilience, and a shorter time to harvest. The new variety. like its predecessor, is a member of the Cavendish family. Credit: Shutterstock