What if... #5

What if... #5

What if bananas refused to grow?

Pedro was staring intently at the trees. He didn't see Ignacio approaching. 'Well?' Ignacio said. Pedro jumped and turned around to face the owner of the orchard with a dark look in his eyes. 'They are not bearing fruit, but this isn't Black Sigatoka and it doesn't look like TR4 disease either.' Ignacio scratched his head and sighed. 'Spread the guano anyway. I'm going to talk to Enrique. Maybe the cooperative knows something.'

Ignacio got in his old jeep and headed to the office that served as headquarters for the cooperative. Almost four hundred family farms were united in the cooperative known as Asociación Mis Guineos. A few years ago Ignacio had made the switch to organic cultivation. Now he was starting to wonder if it had been a mistake to abandon the heavy pesticides.

When he reached the office a crowd had already formed. Farmers were coming in, with the same complaint. In spite of their usual efforts, the fruit was not growing. One of the secretaries was going around handing out copies of an improvised form. Ignacio took a sheet and wrote down what he had noticed on his plantation the last few weeks.

He went to turn it in with the other secretary who was seated behind a desk piling with forms. 'What are you going to do with all these?', he asked her. She looked up at him briefly while typing away at an computer. 'We'll combine all the observations and send them to some experts to ask their advice. We'll try to get them to come here, see what we can do.'

Ignacio snorted in a way meant to convey both his opinion of experts and his lack of alternatives. He returned to his farm to fight insects and await the arrival of the experts. His wife told him a strange story she had seen in the paper. Something about a professor who had built a machine to talk with plants.

A week later the cooperative called. The experts had answered, they would come to investigate next week. 'Two weeks of waiting and nobody's getting paid. Some families are getting into trouble.', his wife spoke with a frown. Ignacio shrugged and threw his hands to the side. There wasn't much else anyone could do.

The experts were dr. Hopewell and professor Maracaibo. The farmers who had gathered at headquarters were restless. They didn't like the way the experts looked. The professor was a technological man. He didn't have green thumbs, which was why the doctor had come along. Dr. Hopewell was part of a research group investigating new ways to protect banana cultivation from the most common diseases. 

The professor had come because he had built a machine. 'It does not talk to plants as they say in the media.', Maracaibo explained, 'It merely boosts certain weak signals and converts them into speech so that we may understand what plants and trees are trying to tell us.'

A man in the back with a faded black t-shirt stood up and said: 'How does that help? Are we supposed to ask the banana plant how it's feeling? Perhaps I should ask my wife to find out why they are so upset no?' The professor simply stared at the man.

Dr. Hopewell replied: 'Early detection of a disease can be crucial. Especially if it's a new one. The machine can help. When we did our first tests on a cocoa tree, it told us it had frosty pod rot. There were no symptoms yet but we immediately took appropriate action and effectively stopped the disease from spreading.'

Ignacio frowned and said: 'How do you know you were right?' Dr. Hopewell looked relieved when she spoke: 'We put the infected trees in quarantine. After three months the symptoms were there but not on the other trees. We have the photos to prove it.' Something changed in the atmosphere of the room. Ignacio's face lost it's frowning expression and even the man in the faded shirt was paying attention now.

After that it didn't take long. They decided to test the machine on the nearest plantation. Ignacio was chosen to go as one of the observers. Five of them went. Enrique, the head of the cooperative, the experts, Maria Segunda, who owned the plantation and Ignacio.

Maria Segunda chose the plant to test. As dr. Hopewell hooked up the machine, they all waited with bated breath. The machine was a lot smaller than Ignacio had expected. It seem to consist of only two parts. One was a rectangular device with an adjustable strap. This went around the stem of the plant. The other was an app.

The professor had taken his tablet computer out of his briefcase. Ignacio knew about tablets. He had seen a show on TV of American farmers who used tablets with apps to help them identify weeds or plant diseases. The cooperative had discussed getting some of this technology. But while Colombia, Chile and Mexico were getting mobile applications for farmers, their own country was being left behind.

Professor Maracaibo tapped away at his tablet. He adjusted the volume and nodded at dr. Hopewell. The doctor placed a hand on the stem and said: 'Please tell us why your fruit is not growing.' Ignacio liked that she didn't beat about the bush. It was weird enough trying to communicate with a plant anyway.

>I have been waiting for you.<, the answer was unexpected. But the doctor replied instantly: 'What do you mean, you've been waiting for us?' A strange noise came from the tablet. >We heard, from our brethren, the humans made a way to hear us. We have been waiting for you to come and listen.< 'Well, we're here now, so what is it that you wanted to tell us?', the doctor continued.

>You pick our fruit too soon. It is not right. You have been picking our fruit too soon for a long time. From mother to suckling this we have been told. We have lamented. But not any more. Now you can hear us, we tell you, there will be no fruit unless you promise.< 'Promise to do what?', the doctor seemed unperturbed.

>Promise to leave the fruit on our stems a while longer.< Doctor Hopewell turned with an enquiring look at Enrique, Maria Segunda and Ignacio. The men stared at the plant with disbelief written across their faces. Maria Segunda however seemed to take it personally. She strode up with her hands on her hips and addressed the banana plant directly: 'Are you telling me you guys are on a strike?!'

>We will not grow fruit unless you promise.< 'If we leave the fruit on the stems longer it will be late getting to the store.', Enrique said to Ignacio. Ignacio nodded and added: 'If we try to rush the transport, they'll think we're mad and buy some place else.' >No. There is no fruit. Nowhere. All of us, we do this together.< Maria Segunda asked dr. Hopewell: 'Do you know? Is it just us or is it everywhere?'

The professor checked the messages on his tablet as he spoke: 'I have been hearing complaints from lots of countries. Latin-America mostly but I have some colleagues... Yes. Asia and Africa are the same. No fruit on the banana plants and no identifiable disease.'

Everyone stared at the banana plants with round eyes. Enrique got a look of concentration in his eyes, 'If it's a global problem, then we can push the market. Tell the transporters, they need to rush. If we are the first to get the bananas growing again, we could set our own price?' This question was directed at Ignacio and Maria Segunda.

'How long would we have to delay harvest? We could still lose the overseas buyers if we don't deliver on time.', Maria Segunda replied. 'We can offer them a week.', Ignacio said, 'One week but they have to start growing for us and let the others make a deal with their own growers.'

>We accept your offer.< 'Good!', exclaimed Enrique, 'But it is not just this plantation of Maria Segunda. All the farmers of our cooperative are in on this deal.' >They have to promise their own plants.<

With this news the five went back to the rest of the cooperative. Some didn't want to believe it. But the app had recorded the plant's communication. Playing it back convinced most farmers. A few insisted on using the machine to hear it directly from their own plants. Ignacio left them to it. He went home and told his plants he would delay harvest for one week if they started growing again.

By the time they were ready to harvest, the media was all over the story. As Ignacio stood overseeing his plantation he realised it was something big after all. For the first time in history a plant had negotiated with humans. The world would never be the same again.

Want more?:

other stories like this: The Sound Machine by Roald Dahl  

about bananas 

about the research

about communicating with plants: google it! There's all kinds of (non) information on the subject.