Banana Fibre Craft of Kerala

## Banana Fibre — From Plantation Waste to Woven Art Banana fibre, extracted from the pseudostem of banana plants, has been used for centuries in Kerala and Tamil Nadu for rope-making, fishing nets, and weaving. Modern sustainable design has revived banana fibre as an eco-textile and craft material. ### Fibre Extraction After the banana bunch is harvested, the pseudostem is cut. The outer sheaths are peeled and run through a scraping machine or scraped by hand with a wooden stick to remove the pulp, leaving clean fibrous strands. These are dried in the sun. ### Properties Banana fibre is: - Strong (tensile strength comparable to flax) - Lightweight and absorbent - Biodegradable and compostable - Glossy, off-white/cream coloured ### Products Traditional: rope, twine, tying material for bundles. Modern: place mats, baskets, bags, lampshades, floor mats, apparel, and paper. Kerala's cottage clusters (especially in Thiruvananthapuram, Kozhikode) produce banana fibre products for national and export markets. ### Environmental Context Banana plantations generate enormous pseudostem waste (~40MT/ha). Fibre extraction converts agricultural waste into income, reducing the burning of pseudostems (a practice contributing to air pollution). ### Women's Enterprise Fibre processing and product weaving are largely done by women SHGs and cooperative members. Several Kerala-based enterprises export banana fibre products to Europe and Japan under eco-fashion branding.