One woman's food waste has become agricultural treasure, with Krista Watkins revolutionising how discarded fruit and vegetables are treated on Queensland farms.
Ms Watkins was crowned the national winner of the 2018 Rural Women's Award on Monday night at Parliament House in Canberra.
Krista and husband Rob transformed wasted green lady finger bananas from her family's property at Walkamin in the Atherton Tablelands into a successful gluten-free flour and cake mix business.
Ms Watkins' next project will aim to uncover by-products from sweet potatoes, with local farmers looking to Ms Watkins to apply her Midas touch to the discarded produce.
"I really hope that I've created a really positive change in the sweet potato industry by repurposing a large amount of that waste into value-added products from farm gate right through to the consumer," she said.
The sweet potato industry wastes on average 50 tonnes per acre because of over-supply in the market and supermarket size requirements.
"We had a really good proven track record, so it was really time to spread our wings and try and help more of the community in solving their on-farm issues," she said.
Ms Watkins will research the nutritional variances in the four main varieties of the vegetable grown in Australia.
"We all know that consumers are driven by eating foods that are better for you," she said.
"Let's make some informed decisions about what kind of variety we should be growing for them."
She's hoping her success will inspire other producers to think about how they deal with farm waste.
"Let's solve it together and create some full-circle, sustainable industries from paddock to plate," she said.
National runner-up was West Australian Darrilyn Gordon, a Jaru woman who is aiming to launch an indigenous training program for unemployed locals in the Kimberley.
