Cassava farmers to benefit from research CASSAVA FARMERS stand to benefit from ongoing research in cassava cultivation, being carried out simultaneously at the Bodles Research Centre in St Catherine and in several parishes across the island. According to agronomist Morris Taylor, who heads the research project at the Research Centre, the work which began in May last year in the parishes of Portland, St. Catherine, Manchester, St. Elizabeth and St. James, on four selected varieties of the tuber, is expected to end this December. "We are carrying out research on four varieties, the M Coll 22, CM 849, CM 516 from Columbia and the local Prison Farm variety, and so far the results indicates that the potential for all four [varieties] are very great," says Mr. Taylor. He told Farmers Weekly that the processors were singling out the M Coll 22 and Prison Farm as the varieties containing less moisture, larger percentage yield in starch from which more bammies are made. The varieties can be grown successfully on marginal, hillside lands, in all soil type from clay to very arable alluvial soil, except swampy areas, with highest yield in Manchester, Clarendon, St. Catherine and St. Elizabeth. The Bodles agronomist recommends that cassava be established in the rainfall season to capture good early growth. "Cassava is one of those crops that is drought tolerant, what is call a hardship crop. It will not let you down. Perhaps it will not give the kind of yield per hectare you are looking for, but it will give you a variety of food especially in light of the many new products that are derived from the tuber and also it provides replanting material". - Claude Wilson
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