Reinventing the pod into a footbath

Steps to help protect your farm from Panama disease tropical race 4 (Panama TR4) don’t need to cost big dollars. The National Banana Development and Extension team shares this great example of an innovative and cost-effective solution for a footbath that a banana grower has implemented to help manage their biosecurity risk.

Something as simple as cutting down a 1,000 litre pod to use as a footbath can be a big saving. The banana extension team recently had a chat with a grower about why he uses a pod.

The grower said that he purchased the pod as they are easy to come by with most of the fungicides applied by the aerial operators coming in 1,000 litre pods.

“We cut the supporting frame and the plastic liner down to 200 mm, the same as a normal step, so it was easy to step in and out of,” the grower said.

“We then placed a piece of expanded mesh in the bottom of the pod, mainly to prevent anyone slipping.

“When we started using the pod as a footbath, we found that we had to protect the pod from the mesh with irrigation pipe so that it wouldn’t wear a hole in the plastic. We also put pipe on the edge of the pod to cover any sharp edges.”

Positioning of any footbath is important. When you walk into the shed the pod is located between a shed wall and the bench seat where you change shoes before walking through the footbath.

“The pod is also good as it is long enough and wide enough that it is difficult to step over and you need to put both feet in,” the grower said, pointing out the signs that direct people to use the footbath.

“Another point with using a pod is that it comes with a built-in valve, making it easy to drain and clean. If we want to shift the pod for cleaning, we can do that with our forklift.”

Overall, the grower explained the key to success in such a simple design.

“We have found that if you make biosecurity easy to do, practices will be followed.”

Footbath made from a 1,000L pod

The National Banana Development and Extension Program (BA16007) is funded by Hort Innovation, using the banana research and development levy, co-investment from the Department of Agriculture and Fisheries and contributions from the Australian Government. Hort Innovation is the grower-owned, not-for-profit research and development corporation for Australian horticulture