CARDI donates 1,000 lbs Red Kidney and Sweet Corn seeds for free distribution to Dominica farmers

The Caribbean Agricultural Research Development Institute (CARDI) donated 1,000lbs of Red Kidney seeds and Sweet Corn seeds to the government, for free distribution to Dominican farmers. The presentation took place on Wednesday 17th February 2016.
 
The 200 pounds of open pollinated Yellow Corn and 800 pounds of Red Kidney beans seeds were secured through the Agriculture Policy Program being implemented by the Inter American Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture (IICA), and is funded by the European Union.
 
This will establish an estimated ten and twenty acres of the two crops respectively, and is expected to assist with the recovery program following the passage of tropical storm Erika, to help generate quick returns, with short term crops. CARDI’s resident representative, Dorian Ettienne presented the seeds to Minister for Agriculture and the Environment, Johnson Drigo at the Division of Agriculture’s Citrus Certification facility at the Botanic Gardens on Wednesday.
 
Ettienne said “As an institution, we looked at our resources and how we could assist in alleviating the plight of the farmers and we realized that within our program, the APP Project had some funds that we could utilize to address that need,” Ettienne explained. “So we went about in seeking to acquire corn and bean seeds as highlighted in the assessment report, from our office in Belize.
 
It is important to note that Belize is the centre for cereal and grain legumes in the CARDI work program, and so over the years they’ve developed seeds that are high yielding, that can really stand up under tropical conditions and so we know that these varieties will do well under our conditions,” he stated.