Banana industry to defend Aussie plantations with $1.7 million toolkit

Hort Innovation and the Australian Banana Growers' Council (ABGC) will coordinate the surveillance and grower education program on how to recognise early disease symptoms and manage diseases more effectively.

Farm visits, workshops, grower groups and other resources such as videos are being used to provide tips for detecting new infections.

ABGC project leader Rosie Godwin said the goal of the surveillance and education project is to boost the banana industry's ability to prevent, manage and reduce the impact of biosecurity threats.

"The presence of bunchy top on a property, if left unchecked, can make a business unviable within 18 months," Ms Godwin said.

"On top of that, bunchy top symptoms alongside heavy infestation of leaf spot and leaf speckle could mask symptoms of TR4 and reduce the efficacy of surveillance, detection and containment.

"By directly including growers and farm advisors in surveillance and biosecurity programs, we are supercharging our biosecurity efforts and increasing the likelihood of early detection.

"Banana growers know their own properties better than anyone else, so even a little bit of training goes a long way."

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Third-generation banana grower and ABGC director Andrew Serra, Tolga, said the project provides growers with the tools they need to be on the front foot when it comes to protecting their property and the industry more broadly.

"The ABGC team provide invaluable surveillance and training for banana growers like myself," Mr Serra said.

"As far as I'm concerned, we have got more than enough to deal with when it comes to pests and diseases, particularly with TR4.

"If banana bunchy top was detected in the major production areas of Far North Queensland on top of that, it could decimate our industry, let alone any other biosecurity threat not currently present in Australia."

Hort Innovation chief executive officer Brett Fifield said addressing the threat of significant banana diseases, as well improving grower capacity to manage them, is a critical priority.

"Research shows if Panama TR4 alone was to spread widely it would cost the Australian banana industry $5 billion over 10 years," Mr Fifield said.

"The challenge of having to deal with TR4 in combination with other significant banana diseases on a property would have an even more serious impact."

TR4 is currently contained to Far North Queensland and the Northern Territory.

Apart from TR4, losses through on-farm management of leaf diseases (yellow sigatoka and leaf speckle) run to tens of millions of dollars per year and.

According to Hort Innovation, if banana bunchy top virus (BBTV) were to spread in Far North Queensland, losses have been estimated at $16-20 million per year.

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