A joint research conducted by Australian and European experts suggested that banana cross-breeding will lead to improved production and make the crop more robust in deflecting pests and diseases.

In a report by ABC on Tuesday, researchers stressed that diversifying the crop, which according to study lead author Dr Mark Donohue of the Australian National University in Canberra, was largely grown for domestic consumption, will ensure its longer survival and lead to better quality produce.

In the study recently published by the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences journal, Donohue pointed out that genetically improving the crop is imperative as "any disruption to the supply of bananas will have immediate consequences ... possibly leading to famines."

At present, Australian farmers mass produce bananas as infertile clone, a technique that according to the study not only exposed the crop to pests and diseases but also to a host of ecological factors that could easily defeat the fruit.

And the best way to correct such vulnerability is to genetically alter the crop's natural breeding, the new study said, which starts by determining "which species were historically crossed and selected for breeding," ABC said.

Donohue said the whole process involves archaeologists, geneticists and linguistics, who will provide the necessary analysis that will aid in successfully cross-breeding the crop, which has been cultivated as early as 7000 years ago.

The study pointed out that too much dependence on few breeds of bananas could potentially harm the banana growing industry in the long-run such as the Panama disease that hit the Gros Michel specie in the 1950s, which virtually sidelined that crop from being the dominant banana produce in the world.

The Australian Banana Growers' Council welcomed the findings issued by the joint research as council chief executive Jonathan told ABC that "offering a range of products, such as plantain, is a good way to encourage expansion of banana varieties."

Eccles, however, admitted that a veritable banana breeding program is absent in Australian and in lieu of that, banana producers employ the help of research studies in assessing the crop's different varieties.

During assessment period, the council said that evaluators carefully check on the flow of the crop's supply chain, looking into finer details of consistent productivity, transport time and flavour characteristics.