Bananas, Banana, Musa acuminata, Musa balbisiana

Banana is a tall tropical grass, that was first grown  (according to some important but unconfirmed research) about 7-10 000 years ago in Papua New Guinea. Bananas also serve like vegetables ( flower and heart), food containers and plates (leaves) , as well as a source of fiber both  for textile and paper industries. Japan cultivated bananas for this purpose since 13th century.  Europeans first seen bananas cultivated in India  in Alexander the Great's expedition of 327 BC. India is still  the largest producer  with  26 217 000 tons produced in 2008.
Today world produces 95 595 965  tonnes of bananas (2009) leaving a potential consumer with  13.86 kg  (30.82 lbs) of bananas to consume, or about 2 bananas per week.
 That's enough to last you 4.5 days, more if you are ready to eat  10 pounds of banana peels (yes they are edible, though I'm not sure what your palate might think about this idea). Just one medium-seized banana will supply your body with 22%  of your daily needs of Vitamin B6 , 17% of Vitamin C, 16% of Manganese, 12 % of Potassium and 8% of Magnesium, among many other things. Please remember to keep this fruit out of the refrigerator, temperatures below 12 degrees will destroy it.
Panama disease is supposed to devastate all commercial growers within 20 years  so  enjoy them while they last.
Worldwide, banana crop could feed  82.5 million people (at 2000 calories a day), or  entire populations of Germany and Bhutan combined.This crop has enough protein for about 50-52 million people.

4 843 595 hectares were used for banana production in 2009, a territory similar to Dominican Republic. That is about 3.12% of all permanent crop land in the world.

Bananas cost around $500-800 per ton.  Retail prices in USA hover around  $0.5-$.6 per pound. Organic bananas  cost about 15 -30  cents more, though I doubt there is much difference poison-wise.
World crop is about $50-60 billion worth.
Piesan Saging


List of all articles at Ironrye:
 http://ironrye.blogspot.com/2011/10/list-of-all-articles-at-iron-rye.html

production by country

Algeria	Bananas	200		200	F		M
American Samoa	Bananas	790		790	F		M
Angola	Bananas	300000		300000	F		M
Antigua and Barbuda	Bananas	220		220			M
Argentina	Bananas	182000		182000	F	182000	F
Australia	Bananas	213193		207061		270393
Bahamas	Bananas	3750		3750		3750	F
Bahrain	Bananas	1000		1000	F		M
Bangladesh	Bananas	1004520		877123			M
Barbados	Bananas	720		720	F	720	F
Belize	Bananas	66000		68053		68070
Benin	Bananas	14000		14500	F		M
Bermuda	Bananas	330	F	363			M
Bhutan	Bananas	3974		3974	F		M
Bolivia (Plurinational State of)	Bananas	182490		182490	F		M
Brazil	Bananas	7098350		6998150		7193189
British Virgin Islands	Bananas	360	F	360	F		M
Brunei Darussalam	Bananas	800	F	800	F		M
Burundi	Bananas	1850000		1850000	F		M
Cambodia	Bananas	130000		130000	F		M
Cameroon	Bananas	820000		820000	F	820000	F
Cape Verde	Bananas	6800		6800	F		M
Cayman Islands	Bananas	210		210	F	210	F
Central African Republic	Bananas	120000		120000	F	120000	F
China	Bananas	8038385		8042702		8207702	F
Colombia	Bananas	1819874		1987603		2020393
Comoros	Bananas	70000	F	70000	F	70000	F
Congo	Bananas	87000		88000	F		M
Cook Islands	Bananas	60		60	F		M
Costa Rica	Bananas	2350000		2127000	F	2127000	F
Côte d'Ivoire	Bananas	360000	F	360000	F		M
Cuba	Bananas	385900		280800		245400
Cyprus	Bananas	7100		5650		5770
Democratic Republic of the Congo	Bananas	314920		315470			M
Dominica	Bananas	20000	F	20000	F		M
Dominican Republic	Bananas	495678		439569			M
Ecuador	Bananas	6002302		6701146		7637324
Egypt	Bananas	945429		1062453		1100000	F
El Salvador	Bananas	65000	F	65000	F		M
Equatorial Guinea	Bananas	20000		20000	F		M
Ethiopia	Bananas	250000	F	261059		194333	*
Fiji	Bananas	2852		8426		3409
French Guiana	Bananas	4500		4500	F		M
French Polynesia	Bananas	800	F	800	F		M
Gabon	Bananas	13000	F	13000	F	13000	F
Ghana	Bananas	57500	F	57500	F		M
Greece	Bananas	3586		3600	F	3600	F
Grenada	Bananas	1336		1336	F		M
Guadeloupe	Bananas	40181	*	40181	F		M
Guam	Bananas	350	F	350	F		M
Guatemala	Bananas	1569460		1569460	F		M
Guinea	Bananas	160000	F	162000	F		M
Guinea-Bissau	Bananas	5200	F	5200	F		M
Guyana	Bananas	5892		5892	F		M
Haiti	Bananas	295000		295000	F		M
Honduras	Bananas	690479		690503		690625
India	Bananas	23823000		26217000			M
Indonesia	Bananas	5454226		5741352		6273056
Iran (Islamic Republic of)	Bananas	101000		113366			M
Israel	Bananas	130814		85186		93510
Italy	Bananas	400	F	350	F	350	F
Jamaica	Bananas	125000	F	125000	F		M
Japan	Bananas	205	F	205	F		M
Jordan	Bananas	34910		41540		43834
Kenya	Bananas	593370	*	593370	F		M
Kiribati	Bananas	5800	F	5800	F		M
Kuwait	Bananas		M		M		M
Lao People's Democratic Republic	Bananas	48000	F	48000	F		M
Lebanon	Bananas	89700		89700	F		M
Liberia	Bananas	120000	F	120000	F		M
Libyan Arab Jamahiriya	Bananas		M		M		M
Madagascar	Bananas	325000	F	325000	F		M
Malawi	Bananas	390000	F	390000	F		M
Malaysia	Bananas	530000	F	600000	F	625000	F
Maldives	Bananas	8910	F	8210	*	4340	*
Mali	Bananas	136898		140000	F		M
Martinique	Bananas	300000	F	300000	F		M
Mauritius	Bananas	9026		10463		10920
Mexico	Bananas	1964545		2159280			M
Micronesia (Federated States of)	Bananas	2100	F	2100	F		M
Montserrat	Bananas	160	F	160	F		M
Morocco	Bananas	201802		214712		220000	F
Mozambique	Bananas	90000	F	90000	F		M
Nepal	Bananas	53257		76792		88849
New Caledonia	Bananas	1685		1256		1145
Nicaragua	Bananas	44391		36285			M
Niue	Bananas	80	F	80	F		M
Occupied Palestinian Territory	Bananas	6160		5120			M
Oman	Bananas	28892		28892	F		M
Pakistan	Bananas	157962		159378			M
Panama	Bananas	545162		357861			M
Papua New Guinea	Bananas	940000	F	940000	F		M
Paraguay	Bananas	46000	F	58321		58840
Philippines	Bananas	7484073		8687624		9013186
Portugal	Bananas	30000	F	30000	F		M
Puerto Rico	Bananas	53500	F	53500	F		M
Republic of Korea	Bananas		M		M		M
Réunion	Bananas	6000		10000	*		M
Rwanda	Bananas	50	F	50	F		M
Saint Lucia	Bananas	40000	F	43798			M
Saint Vincent and the Grenadines	Bananas	51000	F	51000	F		M
Samoa	Bananas	23000	F	23000	F		M
Sao Tome and Principe	Bananas	32000	F	32000	F		M
Senegal	Bananas	32000		40000		40500	F
Seychelles	Bananas	2000	F	2000	F		M
Singapore	Bananas		M		M		M
Solomon Islands	Bananas	330	F	330	F		M
Somalia	Bananas	38000	F	38000	F		M
South Africa	Bananas	345749		393141		373637
Spain	Bananas	358177		383700		384000	F
Sudan	Bananas	74000	F	74000	F		M
Suriname	Bananas	71084		88724			M
Swaziland	Bananas	5000	F	5000	F		M
Syrian Arab Republic	Bananas	800	F	800	F		M
Thailand	Bananas	1929284		1540476		1528082
Timor-Leste	Bananas	2000	F	2000	F		M
Togo	Bananas	19000	F	19500	F		M
Tokelau	Bananas	15		15	F		M
Tonga	Bananas	840		840	F		M
Trinidad and Tobago	Bananas	7000		7000	F		M
Turkey	Bananas	189107		201115		204517
Tuvalu	Bananas	280		280	F		M
Uganda	Bananas	615000		615000	F		M
United Arab Emirates	Bananas	200		200	F		M
United Republic of Tanzania	Bananas	3500000		3500000	F		M
United States of America	Bananas	11612		7893		6985
United States Virgin Islands	Bananas		M		M		M
Vanuatu	Bananas	14500		14500	F		M
Venezuela (Bolivarian Republic of)	Bananas	512187		383836			M
Viet Nam	Bananas	1355000		1355000	F		M
Wallis and Futuna Islands	Bananas	4300		4300	F		M
Yemen	Bananas	120370		128796		132418
Zambia	Bananas	700	F	700	F		M
Zimbabwe	Bananas	95000	F	95000	F		M
World + (Total)	Bananas	89413104	A	93390721	A	95595965	A