How Dutch researchers are trying to save the banana

Fernando García-Bastidas is surrounded by yellow, from his T-shirt and shoes to the accents on his glasses. But the banana plants in the greenhouse around him do not yet carry yellow fruit. Those bananas still have several weeks to grow.

For now, García-Bastidas is focused on pollen. He opens the anther of a banana flower with his fingernail, collects the fine white powder and carries it to another plant. There, he pollinates the female part of the flower. “This is how the mother plant produces fruit from a completely new banana variety in a few weeks,” he explains.

García-Bastidas has crossed two different banana plants. Banana plants produce both female and male flowers. The female flowers develop first beneath thick leaves, and pollination allows them to form a bunch of bananas. The male flowers sit lower down, inside a bud known as the banana heart, where the pollen is produced.

The Colombian breeder and plant scientist is known on social media as “Doctor Banana.” He leads the Yelloway program, where he and his team cross banana varieties every day. They assess traits including taste and appearance, while also seeking plants that can better resist pathogens.

The work comes as banana plantations face fungal diseases that can kill plants. There is no cure, only ways to slow the spread, creating a serious problem for farms and for countries where bananas are an important staple food. To breed bananas in the greenhouse in Bemmel, the team needs seeds from a plant seed bank in Belgium. Supermarket bananas have no seeds, which makes them easier to eat but unsuitable for this breeding work. The greenhouse is kept at 36 degrees Celsius with high humidity, protecting the plants from the cold Dutch weather.

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This is how the mother plant produces fruit from a completely new banana variety in a few weeks.