Public and private sector stakeholders will gather for a week of trainings and to validate an upgrading strategy for strengthening the dasheen value chain.
St Vincent and the Grenadines has been on a roll to increase the production and export of dasheen to local, regional, and global markets. Over the past months, the country has already tapped into these markets through exports of various dasheen varieties, and this is expected to continue for a long time to come. In support of these efforts, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) is working closely with the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry, Fisheries, Rural Transformation, Industry and Labour to further develop the dasheen value chain to ensure its competitiveness and resilience.
During the week of July 3, 2023, FAO will facilitate a Stakeholder Validation Workshop and lead a week of trainings focused on understanding the cost of producing dasheen in an even more lucrative and sustainable manner and how to schedule the production of dasheen according to varieties and agro-ecological zones.
The workshop and trainings will be held with public and private sector stakeholders including farmers, agroprocessors, extension workers, retailers, distributors, exporters, youth groups as well as other technical representatives from the government.
During the week, the visiting FAO team will meet with the stakeholders to review, discuss, and validate the dasheen upgrading strategy they drafted with the stakeholders earlier this year. The team will also review farmer registration, production, and market data collection databases, developed by the Ministry, to make recommendations for improvement as well as conduct site visits to key dasheen production areas, propagation stations, and food terminals.
The FAO team will be led by Mr Jai Rampersad, Trade and Development Consultant, with support from Mr Melvin Medina Navarro, Plant Production and Protection Officer, Dr Omardath Maharaj, Agri-finance Specialist and Mr Samuel DaCosta, Agronomist, who will all deliver presentations during the week’s trainings.
It is expected that by the end of the week, the stakeholders would have validated the upgrading strategy to set into motion its implementation. It is also expected that the Ministry will be better positioned to strengthen their data and information collection and that participants would have been trained in key areas to improve and increase their production.
Mr Juan Cheaz Pelaez, FAO Trade and Markets Officer for the Caribbean and Lead Technical Officer for the FAO project responsible for the week’s activities, remarked that, “St Vincent and the Grenadines has been a champion in the region in exporting dasheen and FAO’s support will help in fortifying this endeavour so that the country can increase the contribution of the agriculture sector to its Gross Domestic Product (GDP).” He added that a validated upgrading strategy and the collaborative approach taken in the development of the dasheen value chain will help to improve the coordination between stakeholders to better secure public-private partnerships and attract greater investment opportunities into the sector.”
The Validation Workshop, week of trainings and site visits are being conducted under a two-year project of FAO’s Technical Cooperation Programme focusing on Promoting Windward Islands Food Production and Trade Corridor through national and regional value chain development and will continue throughout the next two years.
