Individual cutting ripe bananas is an innovator (7)
I believe the answer is:
pioneer
'an innovator' is the definition.
(synonyms)
'individual cutting ripe bananas' is the wordplay.
'individual' becomes 'one' (an individual is one person).
'cutting' is an insertion indicator (some letters cut their way into a word).
'bananas' indicates anagramming the letters (informal term for mad).
'ripe' with letters rearranged gives 'pier'.
'one' put inside 'pier' is 'PIONEER'.
'is' acts as a link.
(Other definitions for pioneer that I've seen before include "First to explore a new area" , "Frontiersman" , "Original developer" , "break new ground" , "Ripe one (anag.)" .)