National banana development and extension program (BA19004)

Completed project

Publication date: June 18, 2020

Delivery Partner: The Queensland Department of Agriculture and Fisheries (for the tropical component) and NSW Department of Primary Industries (for the subtropical component)

Download the final report

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Ongoing project

Discovering new sources of resistance for Panama Tropical Race 4 (TR4) (BA24004)

This project is focused on future‑proofing Australia’s banana industry against Fusarium wilt Tropical Race 4 (TR4), one of the most serious threats to global banana production.

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What was it all about?

The program comprised two coordinated components, a tropical stream focused on the Queensland banana industry and a subtropical stream covering New South Wales and Western Australian production regions - working together as a national initiative. It followed the National Banana Development and Extension Project (BA16007) and was tasked with getting levy‑funded and other R&D back into growers’ hands so they could access and implement new information, technologies and approaches, and make better decisions for their businesses.

Industry development officers delivered a national suite of activities and resources, including the Better Bananas website (betterbananas.com.au), national and regional extension events, field walks and workshops, one‑on‑one and small‑group support, grower training, Australian Bananas magazine content, direct engagement across the supply chain, and innovative field trials and research that were reported through Better Bananas.

Key outputs of the project included:

The program ran a BAGMan meeting on 23 October 2025 with 13 attendees and delivered key technical updates across several industry topics.

The FNQ team completed two trials showing that 1% sodium hypochlorite could remove sooty blotch flyspeck and shared the findings with Hort Innovation and ABGC.

The FNQ team completed farm visits, grower calls, stakeholder engagement, and a presentation to the Cassowary Coast Growers Association.

The NSW IDO completed farm visits, calls/emails, two grower presentations, and led a study tour to the QUT Bioeconomy Lab with four growers.

The program contributed to the Australian Banana Industry Congress by organising the Science Symposium, presenting research, hosting a booth, and submitting posters.

Six Banana Extension Network meetings were held between May and October with representatives from ten projects and programs.

Two WA growers were part‑funded to attend Congress, and their experience was documented for Australian Bananas magazine.

A full co‑design process was completed through a co‑design brief, an independently facilitated workshop, and grower consultations across FNQ and NSW.