Sekhar, a weaver of Anakaputhur which is a suburb of Chennai has perfected the art of making cloth from banana fibre.
About 10 years ago, after a series of trials and errors, he was able to pull fine yarn out of the tough banana stem and today makes clothes out of them.
“It's just as good as cotton. It's also eco-friendly and the raw material is available in plenty. In fact I get the banana plants from functions, where they throw away the plants once they're done,” he says.
Sekhar is associated with self-help group that makes cotton sarees and jute bags.
Though profit is good they would need Government's support to keep the money flowing.
“We would like to go to the Philippines and see how they're manufacturing this banana fibre commercially. We want to learn from them as we're still grappling with some research and development problems,” says Sekhar.
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