Erode is a potential agricultural belt of western Tamil Nadu. Turmeric, paddy, sugarcane, cotton, banana, chillies, French beans, cabbage, groundnut, sesame are the major crops cultivated in the district.  KVK Erode purchased two technologies viz., production of Banana Special and production of Vegetable Special from IIHR Bangalore and they have commenced the production from June 2010 in their KVK campus. Three SHG members were involved during the production process for blending and mixing and packing of Banana Special

Mr.K.Swamiappan from Gobipalayam village of Erode district is a progressive banana farmer has 2.4 ha of cultivable land with paddy and banana as the major crops, of which 0.8 ha is under banana variety Rasthali. During 2012-13, he availed 6 kgs of Banana Special from KVK for demonstration of its performance and it was applied @ 1kg/time/acre once in month from 4th month onwards. The foliar spray of micro nutrient on banana crop showed healthy growth of the crop. It was also observed that the average increase in bunch weight was  2kg/bunch which had resulted an increase in yield of 4750 kg/ha worth to the tune of Rs.104500/ha. The farmer was much impressed with the technology and opined that he will share the success of this technology with confidence to other farmers. He also stated that he would continue to adopt this technology and application of Banana Special increases the drought tolerant capacity of the crop and disease incidence is also relatively less in those plots where Banana Special was applied.

In order to sustain this initiative, the KVK Erode utilized the service of community managed resources centre, in order to scale up of this technology in this district and nearby regions. The trained Community Resource Person (CRP’s) from the 7 CMRC’S promoted in the district by KVK helps in reach this technology to the farmer at the grass-root level.