Year: 2015

For Innisfail local Rebecca Sapuppo, leading the TR4 Program is more than just a job. Rebecca talks about what motivates her and the Program’s team. For more than a decade, Rebecca Sapuppo has been part of Biosecurity Queensland’s (BQ’s) efforts to manage the plant pests…

 As many growers make the switch to 15kg cartons, an industry project has run a shed-to-shelf test of the one-piece versions. Rhyll Cronin reports. A new trial has found one-piece 15kg cartons may be the most cost-effective way to transport bananas and could help reduce…

East Palmerston banana growers Craig and Jade Buchanan have won an Australian Reef Program award for their environmental farming practices. The prestigious national award was presented in September at a Sunshine Coast ceremony honouring primary producers for their work in reducing off-farm impacts on the…

Six months after the March confirmation that TR4 is present in Australia’s major banana-growing region, efforts to combat the banana plant disease are moving from the emergency phase into a longer-term managed response. As part of the transition, occurring in September, response manager Biosecurity Queensland…

Growers from about 90 North Queensland banana farms, or just over half of the region’s production area, are now using the online version of the industry’s environmental guidelines.   The banana industry’s strong take-up of the Best Management Practices Environmental Guideline (BMP) means the industry…

Stewart Lindsay, a banana scientist at South Johnstone in North Queensland, was one of the industry champions who received an Award Of Honour at this year’s Australian Banana Industry Congress. Stewart answers our ten questions. Tell us what got you interested in the banana industry…

Paul Debrincat share-farms with Craig and Jade Buchanan as a part of the LMB Group of farms. He manages the 85-hectare Nerada Farm for LMB on the banks of the North Johnstone River, just west of Innisfail. After the acquisition of the land parcel, Paul…