On Monday, June 15, 2026, over fifty (50) Root Crop and Tuber Farmers/Producers assembled at the Dumbarton Agricultural Station to receive instructions in the post-harvest handling of root crops, targeting dasheen, sweet potato and yam.
General Agriculture Consultant of the ITC, Dean Avril, spoke about the importance of the field trip where participants were exposed to the post-harvest conditions of root crops at the level of the port, plant quarantine and the supermarket end.
Crop Production Consultant within the ITC Project, Martin Gaspard, facilitated the training of participants relative to non-conventional methods in pest and disease management.
Project Coordinator of the EU-funded ITC Project, Cindy Cathy Eugene, provided an overview of the entire process, including expected outcomes.
The four-day activity included a field trip to the Kingstown Port and to a supermarket so that participants could witness and appreciate the post-handling conditions of root crops as they move along the value chain from field to table, and culminated on Thursday, June 18, 2026, with a practical on-field demonstration of pest management.
This exercise was a component of a European Union funded project dubbed “Strengthening Nutritious Value-chains in the Caribbean”. It is a collaborative effort between the International Trade Center (ITC) the Caribbean Agricultural Research and Development Institute (CARDI) and the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Rural Transformation.
