Cassava farmers are demanding that the Government pumps money into the research and development of the root crop, says Ramdeo Boondoo, root crop representative on the Agricultural Society of T&T (ASTT). Boondoo is an executive member of the ASTT and is also on the Cassava Development Committee of T&T. Boondoo who produces just over 200,000 pounds of cassava annually in central Trinidad, charged that the Government was "only dishing out a plethora of nice words," but nothing was being implemented to assist cassava farmers.
According to Boondoo, there was a glut of cassava on the market, with an estimated one million pounds of the root crop in the field. He said the glut was partly because the Cassava Development Committee was not taking the contracted amount from farmers because it did not have storage facilities. Boondoo said the committee could process about 12,000 pounds daily, but did not have storage facilities. He called on the Government to immediately inject funding for cassava processing.
He said other countries were producing cassava at a lower rate because of several factors, including the development of new, higher-yielding varieties. In T&T, the cost of production of one pound of cassava is $1.37 based on the rate of production of 10,000 pounds per area, Boondoo said. He said a target of 25,000 pounds an acre was need to drop production costs to 79 cents. Boondoo said because of the glut, some farmers were moving towards sweet potato production.