Certainly there are many short term benefits to the Banana Improvement Project. Some banana clones that are resistant to the black Sigatoka have already been developed, and the basis for identifying different strains of diseases have also been made available. These advances should not be overlooked. However the long term goals that the BIP has laid the framework are the real important things to look for.

There seems to be two main ways that banana research is heading into. One is the creation of a variety of the Cavendish that is resistant to disease, and the other is the development of a different banana type that is resistant to disease. The future seems to be in a project called Biobanana: International Banana Biotechnology Program. Sponsored again by the World Bank, this program will take what the BIP did further by concentrating on problems with diseases and pests. The main threat to bananas is the black Sigatoka disease, and even though forty years have been spent trying to create a banana that would resist it, none have been developed. Hopefully, with the knowledge gained from the BIP, and with Biobanana forging ahead, this disease can be stopped.