Antigua’s women trained on adding value to sweet potato and cassava value chains
St. John’s. Antigua, 18 June 2018 (IICA). The Inter-American Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture (IICA), together with the Caribbean Agriculture Research Development Institute (CARDI), the Ministry of Agriculture Fisheries and Barbuda Affairs (MoAFBA), with the collaboration of the Epicurean Supermarket, organized a two-day workshop aimed at providing the skills to add value to local starch in the sweet potato and cassava value chains as well as diversifying the market channel and creating a new agri business in Antigua and Barbuda.
The initiative benefited 12 women from the Local CANROP Group, the Food and Nutrition Department of the Ministry of Education and the Private Sector to better support their respective organizations utilizing local process commodities to produce bread.
The aim was for women to receive training from two facilitators from the Epicurean Supermarket, who were trained under the APP project, on processing new cassava and sweet potato, products which high demand in Antigua and Barbuda. During the workshop, participants learned how to calculate and measure the ratio of local starch (cassava and sweet potato) to flour, food safety measures linked to baking and got to know a wide selection of the tools and equipment used to produce the end product.
This activity was part-funded through IICA's Training and Technical event resources.
Since its inception in 2016 under the APP Programme, IICA in collaboration with CARDI and other stakeholders have been executing this training in Antigua on an annual basis. IICA is currently engaged in discussions with the Barbuda Council and the Ministry of Agriculture to execute a similar activity on the sister isle which has not experienced this type of training.
About IICA
IICA is the specialized agency for agriculture in the Inter-American system, with a mission to encourage, promote and support its 34 Member States in their efforts to achieve agricultural development and rural well-being through international technical cooperation of excellence.
More information:
José Alfredo Apízar, Press and Outreach Coordinator, IICA
jose.alpizar@iica.int