New technology old technology and human labor at a Dole banana plantation

While many sectors of the business world are embracing digital transformation, much of the agricultural sector in many areas is still in the very early stages of using next-generation technology.

Adoption of new technology may be crucial to increasing the food supply and efficiency in the agricultural sector. There are some exceptions in which cutting edge technology is used in agriculture as illustrated in a recent article.

The push forward

Agriculture needs technology that increases productivity and reduces labor. The new technology provides decision support systems, effective farm monitoring, greater output, and improved efficiency in the system. As Dole banana production shows there may be limited introduction of new technology in the production sphere while new technology is introduced in marketing products to help the company reach their customers.

Dole puts a simple sticker on their product: "This sticker has a code and an invitation to visit its website. If a client does that, they will find information about which farm that specific banana came from, a complete “banana journey” from farm to supermarket), and also videos and a 360 degree tour of a banana farm."

The website is filled with videos and helpful recipes and much else.The company uses You Tube extensively to provide information about their production and distribution systems to customers.

Dole is a vertically integrated company. It owns plantations in Central America and a fleet of 19 container ships. They are specially equipped to support refrigerated containers and have their own cranes so that they need not rely on port facilities.

The company has headquarters in Westlake Village California. Dole is the largest fruit and vegetable producer in the world. It has 74,300 full-time and seasonal worker. It markets 300 products in 90 countries.

Blending old and new tech

In growing bananas and preparing them for export the company uses a blend of labor and older technology. Although there is some newer technology used to prevent diseases the use of new technology appears in marketing as mentioned. The company has numerous videos on You Tube as well as its website such as this one on harvesting.

While some of the technology is hardly cutting edge, it works. In this farm even a donkey is used to help haul bananas along a cable to the packing plant. The harvesting is done by human labor and is not mechanized. Protective bags are used to shield the bananas while growing and are recycled and dead leaves are left as nutrients for the soil. Quality control monitoring is all done by humans. Among the many other videos is the one appended that shows bananas going from packing plant to U.S. ports.