One of Australia’s most popular fruit. The Cavendish banana is probably the most popular type available in the shops,
However very few people know of the efforts to get these to the store.
Including the trials farmers go through, not only to grow this versatile fruit, but to pick and handle them with care so they look perfect on the shelf.
Growers rely on a significant workforce to pick and get them ready for sale. Not too easy a task. Using AI (Artifical intelligence) farmers are working with industry to develop a prototype robotic arm to separate the banana fruit from the stalk. At the moment this is done by hand, a heavy labour intensive job. The process is called de-handing or removing the hand of bananas from the bunch.
The process to find a better way has been elusive.
In Western Australia the problem getting a skilled workforce is difficult and one farmer found that growing cotton was easier and less labour intensive, and for the first time in 27 years he has replaced bananas with cotton fields. Although banana returns are more than 10 times cotton, without labour they couldn’t be picked. So while he waits for more pickers or AI to come to the party, growing cotton is at least breaking even.
In the citrus industry ‘machine vision rigs’ scan through an orchard, while attached to a moving vehicle, using light detection, Together, the machine vision and time of flight cameras can make crop estimates from the time of flowering.
The University of Qld is looking at taking the technology a step further and developing a robotic mango picker.
A disease called ‘Panama disease’ (TR4) has decimated Cavendish plantations globally and is the reason that banana trees have to be pulled out when finished and destroyed. TR4 is caused by a soil-born fungus that stays in the ground sometimes for more than 50 years, wiping out banana crops and destroying farms for generations.
QLD researchers have received news their genetically modified banana species, QCAV4, (over 20 years in the making) has been approved by Food Standards Australia and New Zealand (FSANZ). According to ‘Cosmos’ this is the first GM banana approved in the world. There are no plans for release in Australia, but it is an important safety net should a widespread disease occur.
Have you ever wondered why some bananas have waxy red tips? These are grown by a certified group of six family owned farms producing over 1000 acres of eco bananas also known as ‘wax tips’.
The fruit is grown to a certified standard and does not use any chemicals either synthetic or organic.
Another interesting feature of bananas is that they lend themselves to being able to transport vaccines to poor countries.
Genetically engineered bananas could be grown on special plantations and just 10 hectares of the fruit would be enough to vaccinate all children under five in Mexico.
The vaccine would be delivered not as raw bananas but as a puree, similar to baby food.
Exciting days ahead…… Till next time.
