CARDI aims to enhance the competitiveness of small-scale coconut farmers through market opportunities and improved access to advisory services.
Scientists from the Caribbean Agricultural Research and Development Institute (CARDI) are hosting training sessions in Saint Lucia for coconut industry producers and technicians, in the production of quality coconut planting material.
The activity is part of several planned for 2016, which form part of a Caribbean coconut industry development project financed by the European Union through the Geneva-based International Trade Centre (ITC).
The project is aimed at enhancing the competitiveness of small-scale coconut farmers by identifying market opportunities, creating synergies between national and regional programs, and improving access to advisory services for improved coconut production.
Stakeholders have welcomed the initiative for its potential to improve income and employment opportunities, food security, and the overall development of the Caribbean coconut sector.
CARDI has been contracted by the ITC to implement the "Coconut Industry Development for the Caribbean" project in nine CARIFORUM member countries: Belize, Dominica, the Dominican Republic, Guyana, Jamaica, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Suriname and Trinidad and Tobago.
The scientists will also interact with key stakeholders in the coconut industry to conduct mapping of coconut plantations, strengthening producer and processing groups and developing appropriate technological packages for intercropping vegetables and fruits and rearing cattle and small ruminants under coconut trees. Placing intercrops and animals within coconut plantations increases farm productivity and incomes for producers.
The scientists will collect relevant information on the coconut industry value chain to be stored within a database developed at the CARDI headquarters in Trinidad. This database will benefit all coconut stakeholders at the national, regional and international levels.
Future activities for the four-year project include policy directives, certified quality planting material, nursery development, good agricultural practices, integrated pest management, processing for value-addition, marketing, finance and business development, quality assurance and, risk mitigation. In the process, farmers, technicians, extension agents, processors, marketers, and other stakeholders will be trained in various coconut production and processing technologies.