When Mena Creek banana farmer Sukhpal Singh Chahal plans for a new block of bananas it’s no longer simply about straight rows and planting into the land as it comes. These days he’s also thinking about soil types, the natural flow of water through the farm and how he’ll contour his paddocks.

Sukhpal is one of 30 growers working with the Australian Banana Growers’ Council’s Best Practice Management Team to improve crops through better use of fertiliser and, in doing so, also improve the quality of water running off their land into creeks and rivers.

Soil and leaf sampling, mapping and soil health workshops are part of the project to create a comprehensive farm nutrient management plan. And through grants that he’s been matching dollar for dollar, he has upgraded farm equipment to change fertilising and mulching methods, and has contoured the farm’s steepest slopes.

“Now we use less pesticides because we’re using a side-thrower slasher between the banana rows, so we’ve got more mulch around plants to suppress weeds naturally,’’ he says. “And when we cut the trees, we put the leaves and stems inside the rows.

“We’re matching fertiliser use to the crop’s needs better and trying to use less. If you don’t do that right it affects production, so being part of this has been very helpful.”

Sukhpal is also one of 13 banana growers working on a water-sampling project in the Utchee Creek area with scientists from TropWATER and Terrain NRM and extension officers from the banana growers’ council. Water is being monitored for sediments, nutrients and pesticides in rainforest above the farmland, in the creek near each farm and downstream from the farms.

“The sampling happens once a month and from time to time we get information,’’ he says.

“After the data we’re always looking at how we can improve the water leaving our farm. We can see what’s going through the water now and it helps us with the bigger picture. Before we’d kill grass along the creek banks. Now we’re leaving it. We know it helps to catch the soil particles.”

Molly Blake from the Australian Banana Growers’ Council says practices are changing across the industry and one example is more ground cover on banana farms.

“Grassed inter-rows are keeping soil on the land by minimising the impact of our high rainfall and increasing the take-up of soil. They’re also helping to improve soil biology and soil health.

Banana growers across all growing districts are working with ABGC to improve their knowledge and farming practice to limit the impact of the farm on their local waterways and the reef. They know that it is important to use sustainable practices to grow beautiful bananas in a beautiful part of the world.”

The Australian Banana Growers’ Council’s Best Management Practices Project is funded through the Queensland Government’s Queensland Reef Water Quality Program. Development of nutrient management plans has been funded by the partnership between the Australian Government’s Reef Trust and the Great Barrier Reef Foundation through the Cassowary Coast Reef Smart Farming Project. The water monitoring program is funded by the Local Scale Water Quality Monitoring Program under the Queensland Reef Water Quality Program and the partnership between the Australian Government’s Reef Trust and the Great Barrier Reef Foundation.