Why you should put gluten-free and vegan-friendly banana flour on your plate – The National

Why you should put gluten-free and vegan-friendly banana flour on your plate – The National

Last year, when India was battling the deadly second wave of Covid-19, it inspired a silent revolution in the south Indian state of Karnataka. This was centred on a rather unusual ingredient: banana flour.

From cooking demonstrations and competitions to videos, workshops, webinars and scores of WhatsApp messages, social media was flooded with posts of banana flour.

Creativity and curiosity at play

It all started when Nayana Anand, 42, a farmer from Tumkur district’s Athikatte village posted on a WhatsApp group called ATV (Anytime Vegetable) a series of dishes she had made for a whole week using banana “This was at a time when Covid had forced people to consume what they had,” Anand tells The National.

The admin of the group happened to be Shree Padre, the editor of Adike Patrike Farm Magazine and someone who had already been working on a campaign to popularise banana flour aka bakahu (short for balekai hudi or raw banana powder in Kannada) in a bid to research value-added products.

Banana flour mobilises farmers to use excess produce when regular sales and harvests are impacted. Photo: Shree Padre

“Banana farmers were battling a steep fall in price due to lack of demand and were forced to trash large