The first sunbeams begin to streak across the morning sky, as the mist lazily dissolves into the clean, crisp air that saturates the undulating landscape miles away from the nearest village.
In the shallow valley below, two young men are hard at work, harvesting a mature cassava crop. Judging by the stains on their shirts and glistening arms, they have been at work even before the dawn.
The terrain is what is commonly known as “sapatay mud”; a thick clay soil that accumulates on your soles, making each step heavier than the last.
It’s a scene that is being replicated throughout TT – from Guayaguayare to Louis D’Or.
[caption id="attachment_908227" align="alignnone" width="768"] Cassava plantation in Louis D’Or. PHOTO COURTESY FAO -[/caption]
Cassava has a long history: it was a staple of the indigenous peoples of the West Indies and remained a popular part of the diet for centuries. A generation ago, the root crop would feature in Christmas pones, Saturday oil-down and mid-week cassareep-making.
Processing cassava is not easy work. While parents might have been the peelers and graters when they were young, today’s generation will not be easily enticed away from the gaming console or streaming movie to risk shredding their fingertips on a punched metal grater. But cassava’s popularity has been growing over the past year or so, as families weathering the pandemic have turned to the locally-grown tuber for a cheap source of available carbohydrate. This in turn can strengthen local food security.
Farmers agree, especially after their participation in the recent Farmer Field School programme, that cassava is in prime position to become king again in TT.
[caption id="attachment_908228" align="alignnone" width="768"] Graduates of the Farmer Field School show some sweet potato crop. PHOTOS COURTESY FAO -[/caption]
Several months before the covid19 pandemic was declared, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the UN (FAO) partnered with several entities across the Caribbean for the Cassava Industry Market Assessment and Technology Validation and Dissemination project.
To advance the modernisation of cassava value chains in Dominica, Suriname and TT, FAO joined forces with Colombia’s Clayuca Corporation to provide practical training for technical national-level agriculture staff in the three countries. The training focused on capacity-building for in-vitro processes for cassava tissue culture, as original planting material.
Tobago farmer Rasbert Lewis said he grew up in a cassava farming community, but the farmer field school increased his knowledge of the crop’s cultivation.
“Cassava is a good product, but you need to have a market where you can deal with it in a brisk way... in a fast way,” Lewis said.
[caption id="attachment_908206" align="alignnone" width="1024"] Cassava on sale at the Central Market, Port of Spain. Cassava’s popularity has been growing during the pandemic. PHOTO BY JEFF MAYERS - Photo by Jeff Mayers[/caption]
“I am willing to sacrifice to make sure I have good yields, beca
