Dominica: Dasheen Value Chain Mission focuses on agriculture development

Dominica: The Agriculture Ministry of Dominica is on a Technical Mission on the Dasheen Value Chain. And, for the last four days, it has been going on in the country, however, it will last today. This is ongoing under Integrated Agriculture Land Use and Ecosystems-based Fisheries Management Planning for Resilient Agri-food Systems through the National and Regional Value Chain Development Project.

Through this Project, the focus on support for the development of the dasheen crop for domestic, regional and international markets will be laid. This is possible through the training of private and public sector representatives and to the ones who are attached to technical organizations.

Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) has given a great contribution in it as the consultants from the organization are facilitating the training. Dr Jai Rampersad, an agronomist and Dr Omardath Maharaj, specialized in Finance (consultants of FAO) are providing the training in Cost of Production and Upgrading Strategy for Dasheen Crops. 

This will be beneficial for the farmers, extension officers, lending institutions, supermarkets and marketing agencies. This training will foster producers and all others involved in the Dasheen Value Chain. As they will be trained in critical areas, which will provide them the support in enabling sustainable production systems and market consistency.

The country’s authorities are doing great work for the growth and development of the Agriculture sector. Recently, on Monday, the Government of Dominica received a quantity of agricultural equipment and materials from China.

These supplies from China included hydroponic cultivation systems, which are required to upgrade technology demonstrations, and materials required for the maintenance of greenhouses and drip irrigation systems. 

Not only this, the systems as well will help in upgrading agriculture tools, seeds and seedling trays which are used for continuous seedling breeding and agricultural machinery. Regarding this, the training sessions were also introduced under the name ‘Urban Agriculture Training’ by the Housing Minister, Melissa Skerrit.