Agriculture and Environment: Bananas

Better Management Practices: Sediment Ponds to Control Runoff

An area that needs significant improvement in banana production is reducing the movement of sediment.

Not only does this reduce the fertility of the soil being cultivated, but also eroded soil carries with it chemicals that pollute and/or clog the receiving bodies of water.

Rivers, creeks, inshore coastal areas, and even reefs are all affected by the surface runoff from banana plantations. This runoff contains soil sediments, organic matter, chemical nutrients, and pesticides.

Most banana plantations are designed to assist the water to leave quickly and, consequently, to empty directly into freshwater ecosystems. In Florida, sugar and citrus producers are required to use sediment ponds rather than to empty their "flush" directly into the Everglades.

Taxes to control effluent quality
In Colombia, shrimp aquaculture producers are required to pay a tax if their effluent is of poorer quality than their intake water. This has spurred the use of settlement ponds and canals and even the construction of biological filters, or biofilters, in wetlands and mangroves to treat waste. Banana producers should consider similar measures.

Reducing phosphate runoff
In Belize six of the seven main pesticides and one of the main the main fertiliser nutrients, phosphorous, move predominantly with sediments. Reducing sediment movement will prevent or greatly reduce the movement of most of the pesticides and phosphate, the most common form of phosphorous.

Research should be undertaken to determine if the use of settlement ponds could reduce or even prevent pesticide and phosphate-laden sediment from reaching natural waters and coastal areas.