Induced Ripening of Banana for Increased Marketability and Storage

Ripening Solutions for Quality and Efficiency

The technology of "Induced Ripening of Banana for Increased Marketability and Storage" is a method designed to enhance the ripening process of bananas, specifically dessert bananas, to ensure they are market-ready and have an extended shelf life. This technology is crucial for the banana industry, which often harvests bananas prematurely to minimize transportation damage. In this process, bananas are artificially ripened using various chemical agents, most notably ethylene gas. Commercial ripening chambers provide controlled environments where temperature, humidity, and ethylene gas concentration are precisely regulated. This controlled ripening ensures that bananas reach optimal ripeness and maintain uniform quality.

This technology is TAAT1 validated.

8•8

Scaling readiness: idea maturity 8/9; level of use 8/9

Adults 18 and over: Positive high

The poor: Positive low

Under 18: Positive low

Women: Positive low

Farmer climate change readiness: Significant improvement

Environmental health: Greatly improves environmental health

Soil quality: Does not affect soil health and fertility

Water use: Same amount of water used

Carbon footprint: More carbon released

Problem

The technology adressed problem in banana industry such as:

Premature Harvest: Dessert bananas are often harvested prematurely to prevent transportation damage. This results in fruit that is not yet ripe and ready for the market.
Post-Harvest Losses: Bananas, especially plantains, suffer significant post-harvest losses due to transportation damage and spoilage. This impacts the availability of fresh fruit for consumers.
Inconsistent Ripening: Traditional ripening methods, such as wrapping banana bunches with green leaves, are time-consuming and result in non-uniform ripening. This leads to varying quality and marketability.
Consumer Demand: Consumers prefer ready-to-eat bananas, and fruit sellers need a consistent supply of ripe fruit to meet this demand.
Environmental Concerns: Traditional ripening methods, such as burning leaves or kerosene, can be environmentally unfriendly.

Solution

The technology suggested several solution such as:

Uniform Ripening: By using commercial ripening chambers that control temperature, humidity, and ethylene gas concentration, bananas can be uniformly ripened, ensuring consistent quality and marketability.

Reduced Post-Harvest Losses: Artificial ripening with ethylene gas ensures that bananas are ready for the market, reducing the risk of post-harvest losses due to transportation damage or spoilage.

Efficiency: The technology allows for the acceleration or slowing down of the ripening process based on market demand, optimizing the supply chain.

Environmental Benefits: Controlled ripening with ethylene gas is more environmentally friendly compared to traditional methods like burning leaves or kerosene.

Meeting Consumer Demand: The technology meets consumer demand for ready-to-eat bananas, benefiting both fruit growers and sellers.

Key points to design your program

Induced Ripening of Banana improves post-harvest management by replacing unsafe and inconsistent traditional ripening practices with controlled ripening systems that produce uniform, market-ready fruit. The technology primarily supports post-harvest value chain development by improving fruit quality, reducing post-harvest losses, strengthening food safety, and enabling producers, traders, wholesalers, retailers, processors, and ripening service providers to supply markets with consistent, ready-to-sell bananas. It is well suited for post-harvest management, market development, food security, and agri-food processing programmes, contributing to SDGs 1 (No Poverty), 2 (Zero Hunger), 3 (Good Health and Well-being), and 8 (Decent Work and Economic Growth). The technology also creates business opportunities for women and youth through ripening services, fruit trading, aggregation, storage, and marketing. To successfully integrate this technology, consider the following key actions :

Market hub selection and pilot demonstrations: Identify major banana production and marketing hubs where post-harvest losses, inconsistent ripening, and poor market timing reduce product value. Establish demonstration activities to showcase safe and controlled ripening technologies.
Strategic partnerships: Collaborate with IITA, farmer organizations, traders, wholesalers, retailers, processors, extension services, market authorities, and private-sector operators to coordinate technology deployment and strengthen post-harvest value chains.
Ripening infrastructure development: Invest in ripening chambers, storage facilities, temperature and humidity control systems, and the equipment required to safely apply regulated ripening agents, ensuring facilities are located close to target markets and have reliable access to energy and essential inputs.
Capacity building: Train producers, traders, ripening operators, and extension agents on controlled ripening techniques, quality control, post-harvest handling, food safety standards, and ripening chamber operation and maintenance.
Market linkage development: Strengthen commercial linkages between producers, traders, wholesalers, retailers, processors, and ripening service providers to improve product availability, market timing, and supply chain efficiency.
Inclusive enterprise development: Promote entrepreneurship opportunities for women and youth in fruit trading, ripening services, aggregation, storage, and marketing.
Monitoring and evaluation: Monitor programme performance through indicators such as post-harvest loss reduction, fruit quality, market volumes, income improvements, adoption of safe ripening practices, and the participation of women and youth.

17,000 USD

Industrial semi-automated ripening chambers of 5 tones of banana

IP

Trademark

Scaling Readiness describes how complete a technology\’s development is and its ability to be scaled. It produces a score that measures a technology\’s readiness along two axes: the level of maturity of the idea itself, and the level to which the technology has been used so far.

Each axis goes from 0 to 9 where 9 is the “ready-to-scale” status. For each technology profile in the e-catalogs we have documented the scaling readiness status from evidence given by the technology providers. The e-catalogs only showcase technologies for which the scaling readiness score is at least 8 for maturity of the idea and 7 for the level of use.

The graph below represents visually the scaling readiness status for this technology, you can see the label of each level by hovering your mouse cursor on the number.

Scaling readiness score of this technology

Maturity of the idea 8 out of 9

Uncontrolled environment: tested

Level of use 8 out of 9

Used by some intended users, in the real world

Maturity of the idea										Level of use
9
8
7
6
5
4
3
2
1
	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9

Countries with a green colour: Tested & adopted
Countries with a bright green colour: Adopted
Countries with a yellow colour: Tested
Countries with a blue colour: Testing ongoing

Countries where the technology is being tested or has been tested and adopted
Country	Testing ongoing	Tested	Adopted
Benin	–No ongoing testing	Tested	Adopted
Burkina Faso	–No ongoing testing	Tested	Adopted
Burundi	–No ongoing testing	Tested	Adopted
Cameroon	–No ongoing testing	Tested	Adopted
Côte d’Ivoire	–No ongoing testing	Tested	Adopted
Democratic Republic of the Congo	–No ongoing testing	Tested	Adopted
Ethiopia	–No ongoing testing	Tested	Adopted
Ghana	–No ongoing testing	Tested	Adopted
Guinea	–No ongoing testing	Tested	Adopted
Kenya	–No ongoing testing	Tested	Adopted
Malawi	–No ongoing testing	Tested	Adopted
Nigeria	–No ongoing testing	Tested	Adopted
Rwanda	–No ongoing testing	Tested	Adopted
Sierra Leone	–No ongoing testing	Tested	Adopted
Somalia	–No ongoing testing	Tested	Adopted
Tanzania	–No ongoing testing	Tested	Adopted
Togo	–No ongoing testing	Tested	Adopted
Uganda	–No ongoing testing	Tested	Adopted
Zambia	–No ongoing testing	Tested	Adopted

This technology can be used in the colored agro-ecological zones. Any zones shown in white are not suitable for this technology.

Agro-ecological zones where this technology can be used
AEZ	Subtropic - warm	Subtropic - cool	Tropic - warm	Tropic - cool
Arid	–	–	–	–
Semiarid	–	–	–	–
Subhumid	–		–
Humid

Source: HarvestChoice/IFPRI 2009

The United Nations Sustainable Development Goals that are applicable to this technology.

Goal 2: zero hunger

Goal 3: good health and well-being

Goal 8: decent work and economic growth

Goal 1: no poverty

1. Introduction of Ethylene

Prepare a ripening chamber or room suitable for inducing the ripening of bananas.
Generate ethylene, a ripening agent, using chemicals like Ethephon (Trade name Ethrel) with a concentration of 2000 ppm.
Dip the bananas in the ethylene solution for 3 minutes. Ensure thorough coverage.

2. Control Humidity