Plant germplasm talks take root on the regional ‘free movement’ agenda
St. Augustine, Trinidad. Cassava, which has long been treated as the ‘forgotten food’ is perhaps the perfect food crop for the tropics and the commodity that will help build a whole set of new agro-industries in developing countries.
This is the conclusion of President of the Caribbean AgriBusiness Association, Vassel Stewart, who is tasked with job of fleshing out a Regional Policy Framework for the Cassava-based industry, under the Caribbean Action of the Intra-ACP Agriculture Policy Project (APP); funded under the 10th European Development Fund (EDF) and executed through a Contribution Agreement signed between the European Union (EU) and the Inter-American Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture (IICA), in collaboration with the Caribbean Agricultural Research and Development Institute (CARDI) and the CARICOM Secretariat (CCS).
But what does it take for developing countries to build an industry from a mere plant, into ‘a whole set of new agro-industries’ which are vertically integrated and capable of displacing some of the million-dollar food imports? For starters, improved plant varieties, regardless of whether these are obtained from improved seeds, cutlets, tissue culture, or some other form of local or imported vegetative material. This basic need for improved plant germplasm, or in layman terms, planting material, applies to all crop-based agri-industries whether their products are used for food, feed, fibre, fuel or to fulfil rapidly growing demands of the wellness and cosmetics industry.
The desire for improved plant varieties can be seen in the temptation of travellers to ‘sneak-in’ cuttings or some other form of ‘exotic’ plant life into the country. Also for years, Caribbean countries have, and in some instances unknowingly, been importing large quantities of hybrid crop varieties to boost farm productivity and production.
These now form an integral part of commercial farming operations. However, there are risks to agriculture and the environment from the ‘free movement’ of plant material into and across the Region. It is the need to minimize these risks that are at the heart of efforts to prevent entry and spread of plant pests and diseases and the ongoing regional dialogue on harmonizing rules governing movement of plant material across the Region.
For some time now, CARDI has been creating strategic alliances with centres of excellence around the world, including the Secretariat of the Pacific Community (SPC) in Fiji, which manage improved food crop germplasm. The entity has also been strengthening the network of research facilities across the Caribbean to wean, harden and multiply these improved varieties once imported into the Region.
Through controlled evaluation and validation trials, the varieties that satisfy yield, suitability and other productivity and economic criteria are distributed to farmers to increase food production. Increasingly, in today’s climate change reality, the criteria include high tolerance to temperature extremes, rainfall unpredictability and variability and resistance to a specific list of pests and diseases.
Under the APP project, priority has been placed on work to advance the process of harmonizing protocols for movement of selected plant germplasm across the Region. The objective of this work is to modernize existing rules and regulations concerning trade in plant material for easier movement while, at the same time, maintaining the lowest level of risk with respect to the transfer of plant pests and diseases within the Caribbean.
These recommendations will form the basis for discussion when plant health specialists from across the region meet on 7 December 2015, in Trinidad and Tobago, to review the findings and take decisions on moving forward.
The convergence of objectives between the APP activity to achieve regional harmonization of protocols for movement of plant germplasm and the Caribbean Plant Health Directors’ (CPHD) Forum auger well for enhancing the ability of agricultural institutions to acquire, multiply and distribute improved plant germplasm, which has the potential to transform farming and food production systems across the Caribbean.
The decisions taken at this meeting will contribute another important step forward in enabling the region to take advantage of the new level of interest and excitement in the development of commodity-based agri-industries as part of the regional strategy to expand the revenue base and employment and to reduce the food import bill.
Access to high-yielding, climate-smart varieties of food crops is key to realising the goal of growing ‘a whole set of new agro-industries’ including those locally referred to as ‘blue foods’, i.e., dasheen, yam, tannia, eddoes, as well as cassava and sweet potato.
More information: