Innovation is key to success

INNOVATION thrives in the Far North.

There must be something in the water or in the air that encourages people to think outside the square.

In today’s edition there are at least three examples of tropical-born innovation.

Leading the way is Walkamin banana grower and food waste innovator Krista Watkins, co-founder of Natural Evolution Foods, who has been named the 2018 AgriFutures Rural Women’s Award national winner.

Mrs Watkins is determined to cut down the level of waste at the farm gate and will use her prize money to find by-products for sweet potatoes, which is wasted to the tune of about 25 tonnes per hectare.

“By innovating and finding an alternate use through by-products helps to diversify the income stream and dramatically reduce the amount of leftover produce,” she says.

Apps and disrupters are all the rage and young entrepreneur Jodie Mlikota has jumped in boots and all with Gathar, a food service which provides chefs to cook in homes for people with busy business and lifestyle lives.

It has started in Cairns and is expanding throughout Australia with a global reach being the ultimate target.

Thirdly, Cairns Regional Council is launching its annual innovation awards and the poster boy is 11-yearold Kelby Cifuentes of Tolga who is short-listed in the People’s Choice category for his Toadinator cane toad trap. It traps tadpoles. The toad tadpoles are humanely euthanised while the frog tadpoles are returned to the water.

Innovation is what keeps the Far North thriving and should be actively encouraged. Nick Dalton Deputy editor