Moruca far flour, co

Close to 50 farmers in the Moruca Sub District, Region One recently benefited from technical advice for the planting of cassava and coffee during a meeting with a team of agricultural specialists and junior Minister of Indigenous People’s Affairs Valerie Garrido-Lowe.

The two-day engagement which commenced last Thursday saw the Ministry partnering with the National Agriculture Research and Extension Institute (NAREI) and Brazil’s Stem Integrated Production in Agribusiness, (SIPA) to share technical knowledge with farmers who will soon be engaged in the production of Ground Robusta Coffee and cassava flour to supply the local market and later the international market.

In a statement issued on Monday, the Ministry explained that some fifteen farmers from Santa Rosa Village will be engaged in the coffee project, while thirty-five will be involved in the cassava flour project in Kwebana.

It was noted that the team visited seventeen farms in the area and was able to engage farmers to whom they provided technical knowledge as it relates to planting techniques and pest control which will vastly improve the percentage of yields they currently enjoy.

Soil samples were collected from each farm and a complete analysis will be conducted and results as well as recommendations will be forthcoming shortly, the statement said.

NAREI’s researcher, Premdat Beecham, following the visits to the farms commended the effort put into the project as he said, “We need to move in that direction since value addition is one of the most important things because we cannot do without adding value to it and taking into consideration the schools feeding pro-