An Overview Of Our Solution
For several decades two values driven banana producers: cost and productivity. In other words, search for profits. Today others values are more important than profits. But even with all efforts done banana industry still waste lots of water. We need to think outside the box and implement changes more environmentally efficient which results in more effective procedures. Costa Rica is one of the biggest banana producer in the world. Over 100 million boxes/year. This huge production demands 14,500,000,000 l/water/y just for packing it. Can this be improved? Yes, applying “New Millennium” methodology consisting in packing bananas without the use of water tanks. This results in reduction of 97% of water used, reduce the needs for energy giving the opportunity to generate all requirements from solar panels reducing water and CO2 prints.
Who is this solution impacting?
Community Type
Rural
Additional Information
- Population Impacted:
- Continent: North America
General Information
Organization type
individual
Ecosystem (select all that apply)
Forests
Freshwater
Population impacted
60,000
Challenge
Size of agricultural area
94.8 ha
Production quantity
3162 18kg box/ha/y
People employed
85
Solution
Describe your solution
Traditionally in the banana industry the bunches are harvested at the field and transported entire to the packing sheds where they are dehanded, placed in water tanks, clustered, cleaned, transported by water, selected and classified for packing. Demanding a constant flux of pressurized-water, 145 liters per packed box and lots of energy. With the new methodology the fruit is dehanded at the fields (leaving all the organic waste there), transported by beds to the packing shed where they are clustered, cleaned and classified in the same beds avoiding the usage of water tanks, resulting this in the reduction of water consumption of 97% from 145 to only 4 liters per packed box. By using this methodology also reduce the needs for energy since no pressurized-water, no pumps, no motors, no belts or electrical conveyors are needed. Given this, it is possible the implementation of solar energy for packing bananas, generating all its energy requirements at the farm from that source, reducing the CO2 print becoming more carbon neutral besides the reduction of the water print.
Implementation
Describe your implementation
This 7-year family business become one of the top producing banana farm in Costa Rica with over 3,100 boxes/ha/y. What this means is that the farm could have used for 3,100 Boxes/ha/Y X 145 l of water/box X 94.8 ha a total of 42,612,600 liters of clean water just for packing that fruit. Instead only 3% were used or 1,278,378 liters per year. Resulting in savings of 41,334,222 liters of clean water in just one year of operation. Considering the 7 years this new methodology has saved 289,339,554 liters of clean water just in 94.8 ha farm. The biggest obstacle you always face with new ideas is the resistance to the change and the fear to the unknown and the uncertainty. Quality of the fruit is a big concern. Buyers are always reluctant to accept the risk of receiving the fruit in Europe or USA since the fruit wasn’t processed in the traditional way, given that they are afraid that it may not perform well in quality, causing losses and reducing profitability. However, time have shown that this new methodology does not just save water, energy and mitigate the negative impact over the environment but also that for quality aspects it helps to perform much better. Also this new methodology improves the harvesting process to the point that it is considered as the easiest and lightest among all banana procedures in Costa Rica, besides it is also considered one of the best well paid with better yields per worker. In other words, more efficient. Besides the new methodology reduce 90% the fruit waste caused by handling of the fruit during harvesting & transport, resulting in an increase of productivity that reduce fixed cost and improve profitability.
External connections
Buyers, ripeners and distributors. Ministry of labor, ministry of agriculture. Certification bodies. Workers and field supervisors. Community. Farmers. GlobalGAP. The operations won the GlobalGAP award 2016 that merit producers who have achieved outstanding results through their commitment to Good Agricultural Practices and principles.. http://www.globalgap.org/uk_en/Profiles/68600601-f5f6-11e3-a910-6805ca037347/.
Results
What is the environmental or ecological challenge you are targeting with your solution?
Costa Rica is one of the biggest banana producer in the world. Almost all the production is located in the humid tropical forest in the Atlantic area. Over 100 million boxes 18.14 kg, or 1,814,000 tons of bananas are exported per year. This huge production demands around 14,500,000,000 liters of water, not for irrigation since the production is located in humid tropical region therefore irrigation is not need it, all that water is used only for packing the fruit! used basically for transporting fruit from one point of the packing shed to the other during the packing process. A huge and unreasonable waste of a natural resource. If the production of banana of the whole world is considered, the amount of water wasted is beyond the imagination.
Describe the context in which you are operating
Thinking outside the box Varcli accept the challenge to produce bananas with a new methodology driven by our own vision: Farming & packing bananas with a quantifiably reduction of the environmental impact reducing waste, saving water, ensuring biodiversity & human welfare but commercially efficient. Banana wastes a lot of water and use lots of energy justified by the argument that otherwise the efficiency would be unsustainable. Is true that banana represents a very important source of welfare. Locally is a very important throttle for economy. According with Central Bank of Costa Rica, foreign income from banana exports is US $ 833.4 million in 2016, the share of banana exports in total national exports represented 8.6%. In other words, a very sensible subject. That is why a solution must impact positively the business to ensure good response from all actors for implementing a better methodology for environment & biodiversity, integrating a solution that impact positively all parties.
How did you impact natural resource use and greenhouse gas emissions?
When water is used to pack fruit in the traditional way it is extracted clean from natural sources. Used in the process and contaminated with tons of latex produced by the fruit during the time it is immersed in it. Potassium aluminum is added to water to coagulate latex to keep quality. Soap is also added and/or chlorine/hydrogen peroxide. Only the latex can saturate the water and negatively affects biochemical oxygen demand. This water is then immediately released to the environment with very low quality. The new methodology reduces the consumption of water in 97%, besides the only 3% used do not get any soap or hydrogen peroxide added. Only chlorine at 3-4 ppm in order to make the water potable according with the WHO guidelines. This way water is released after packing process almost as clean as it was when was extracted, keeping the same quality with no chemicals added, returned to the environment almost with same quality. It is a simple solution to a huge problem.
Language(s)
Spanish
Water
Keeps the natural quality of water and reduce risk for flora and fauna. Reduce the amount of water used and preserve the natural sources of water.
Food Security/Nutrition
Less fruit waste ensures more food available for human consumption. The new methodology reduces 90% fruit waste due to the handling of fruit during harvesting and transport resulting in an increase in yields per Ha.
Economic/Sustainable Development
Cost reduction for the growers. The new methodology reduces 90% fruit waste due to the handling of fruit during harvesting and transport resulting in an increase in yields per Ha reducing fixed costs and improving profits. Actually the operation is at least 400 boxes per ha better than the national average.
Climate
When more water is kept in its natural environment less impact on the climate change effect we get.
Sustainability
The only thing this solution need is the good will of the main actors in the banana production industry and many other crops in order to implement it.
Return on investment
The real cost of the implementation lays in the fact that after 100 years of development of the banana industry most of the growers already have huge infrastructures based on the old methodology and the new one imply that they will need to get riddle of it since is not needed at all. The new methodology reduces 10% hand labor, reduce 95% the energy requirements, reduce 100% the needs of soaps and water additives, reduce 90% the fruit waste caused by handling of the fruit during harvesting and packing, eliminate the cost of handling the fruit waste since all is left behind at the field and improves quality. Quantify that monetarily is very difficult because this will vary depending on the reality of each grower and country.
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Replication and Scale
How could we successfully replicate this solution elsewhere?
Governments tax growers for water use/waste. One day all governments will do the same. When this happens growers will then look for alternatives to reduce water since that will affects their profitability. But growers located in the tropical region do not care for saving water since they have a huge source with rains. Unless a highest level of conscience is created it is very unlikely to convince growers to get rid of their infrastructure for traditional methodology to adopt a new one. Meanwhile, the implementation of this new methodology could be where water is an issue & concern as the organic banana plantations in Dominican Republic, Peru, Ecuador, Mexico & Colombia. An advantages is that those growers are individually small. Most Fairtrade associated. With basic infrastructures, ease to adapt to new methodologies. The impact will be huge since this represents more than 20 million of boxes/year & 2,900,000,000 l of water used, of which we could save the 97%