BRIDGETOWN, Barbados, Thursday March 16, 2017 – Barbados is set to make to a multi-million-dollar investment to drive the production of cassava flour.
Construction of a cassava flour mill will get underway in another six months.
According to the chief executive officer of the state-owned Barbados Agricultural and Development Marketing Corporation (BADMC) Shawn Tudor, planning permission has already been attained for the construction of the plant which is expected to cost near quarter million dollars.
Tudor is already excited by the prospects, saying it will not only put more cassava flour on shelves but provide additional revenue opportunities for farmers and generate employment.
“We will enter into contracts with farmers and there are also options for feed [production] available down the road,” he explained.
The mill is projected to produce a tonne of cassava flour a day.
Tudor told online newspaper Barbados Today that the initiative is also intended to get more people on board with agriculture, saying there has been renewed interest in the sector.
“We have more requests for land than we have and that we can ever get from plantations to bring back in,” he said.
Stressing that agriculture was still a viable business, he urged the public to take it seriously, lamenting that the sector was not being treated as a serious business.
The BADMC head said the agency was ready to assist farmers but urged them to formulate business plans and invest in the sector.
