Forewords from the Rector of Udayana University

Indonesia is globally known as a country with mega-biodiversity, including the high diversity of fruits. This mega-biodiversity is invaluable asset for future development of novel food, raw material for industries and material sources for various utilizations. The lack of attention in developing this high diversity of fruits has led to the inability of domestic fruits to compete with imported ones, their existence is increasingly marginalized, even many of which are already classified as rare.

Banana is one of the most important germplasms with its multitude uses: the fruits, leaves, stalks and other parts of the tree are widely utilized to support the locals’ daily needs. Especially for Balinese, bananas are not only economically valuable for supplying the food demand, or consumption in tourism, and inter island trade and export, but more importantly bananas comprise socio-cultural values for customary ritual activities and religious ceremonies.

The high biodiversity of bananas are not yet optimally utilized, banana-based food processing and diversification are still limited by the insufficient knowledge and technology applied. Therefore, we fully support the establishment of “Bali International Research Center for Banana”, which was initiated by Udayana University and Institut Teknologi Bandung. This research center is expected to strengthen and enhance collaboration in research and innovation of bananas, which will involve academics, industries, local and national governments as well as international partners. The founding of “Bali International Research Center for Banana” is projected to become an indicator of knowledge and technology which would be applicable in wider fields to increase public welfare. The strategic location of Bali would facilitate the connection of researcher and communities involved in banana research from all over Indonesia, even internationally. This research center will support the implementation of various research and innovations from upstream to downstream projects by involving the business world, bringing positive impacts in economy, cultivation and capacity building of human resources of Bali in particular and Indonesia in general.

We would like to thank those who have supported and facilitated the establishment of “Bali International Research Center for Banana (BIRCB)”. We hope that BIRCB could meet the vision, mission and objectives of its establishment so as to fully contribute for all stake holders of Indonesian bananas.

Rector of Udayana University,

Prof. Dr. dr. Ketut Suastika, Sp-PD (KEMD)