Sweet discussions on Sweet Potato by Keairra Smith
The session opened with a moment of reverence and national pride as Mr. Junior Greene, CARDI Representative for Antigua and Montserrat, gave opening remarks. He spoke about the potential of local agriculture, particularly the sweet potato sector, saying, “We’re helping share a future where local crops like sweet potato will strive.”
Mr. Gregory Bailey/Director of Agriculture, Land, Fisheries and the Blue Economy, then delivered remarks. With a sense of optimism, “I wish all of you a very productive session,” encouraging participants to engage fully in the discussions and presentations ahead. Mr. Bailey followed up by highlighting the project’s progress over the years. “This project has been in action for the last four years, and we’d like to present some of the results from this program,”
Dr. Oral Daley, Project Lead from the Department of Food Production at The University of the West Indies, St. Augustine Campus, then took the floor. “This is my first time in your lovely country,” he said speaking directly to the youth in the room, he added, “When I see young people like you involved in agriculture, I advise you to stay on the right path.”
From there, the session opened for comments and questions. Ms. Denise Besai, CARDI Communication Specialist, emphasized the importance of efficiency and growth, posing the challenge: “How do we become more productive and expand productivity?”
Mr. Reginald Andall, Project Coordinator, addressed one of the more practical topics of the day, funding. “Money is the answer to everything,” he said, noting that the project was made possible through a USD $600,000 grant from the Caribbean Development Bank.
During the Q&A session, participants raised questions about project spending and impact. When asked if there had been a breakthrough, Mr. Andall shared that “roughly 8% was spent”.
Health benefits of sweet potato were also brought to light. Mr. Junior Greene reminded attendees, “Sweet potato can reduce diabetes and heart failure.” He reinforced a call “Eat what we grow.”
Additionally, Mr. Craig Thomas/IICA National Specialist added that “there has been a number of projects coming through focusing on sweet potato,” indicating growing interest in the crop across the region.
Mr. Ika Furgus/FAO Nnational Correspondent, summed up the mood by saying, “We look forward to a productive and insightful session,” capturing the collective hope for progress.
Mrs. Nicolette Francis stated a critical point: “It’s not only about growing, but eating what we grow,”
The first formal presentation came from Mr. Reginald Andall, who covered Component #1 of the project. He emphasized the growing importance of sweet potato, noting that it’s now the fifth most important crop in developing countries. The project aimed to assess the status of the sweet potato value chain and explore both regional and international market challenges and opportunities. This was achieved through a detailed on-the-ground survey, stakeholder mapping, and an online environmental analysis.
Key production statistics (according to FAO data) included:
- Jamaica: 57,485 mt
- Haiti: 56,281.86 mt
- St. Vincent: 2,020.62 mt
- Antigua and Barbuda: 124.19 mt
Popular varieties identified during the research included Black Rock, Mandela, OKAI#1, King’s Crown, Hurricane, and Beauregard, with King’s Crown standing out as the preferred variety. Among the project’s recommendations was Result #4: to institute a national campaign promoting sweet potato’s health benefits and ensuring food safety practices to support public health and trade facilitation.
Dr. Oral Daley then presented Component #2, which focused on morphological characterization of five preferred cultivars. The study was conducted from July to December 2024 as part of the Regional Sweet Potato (Ipomoea batatas) Value Chain Enhancement and Technology Transfer Project.
The objectives were two-fold:
- To characterize the five preferred sweet potato cultivars using standardized morphological descriptors
- To show relationships among them based on those features
Some of the findings included:
- Predominant Vine Color similarities –
Black Rock & King Crown
- Secondary vine color (Green base)
Even
- Vine tip hairiness
Even
- Average mature leaf size (cm)
Black rock has the largest & hurricane has the smallest
- Petiole length (cm): Hurricane – 20.00 | Black Rock – 9.00
- Leaf lobe numbers showed similarities among Black Rock, Hurricane, and King’s Crown, with Beauregard and Mandela being more similar
- Tuber diameter (cm): Black Rock – 3.00 | Hurricane – 3.50 | King’s Crown – 13.00 | Beauregard – 4.00 | Mandela – 6.00
- Tuber length (cm): Black Rock – 25.00 | Hurricane – 20.00 | King’s Crown – 7.00 | Beauregard – 19.00 | (Mandela data not completed)
The next presentation, Component #3, was led by Ms. Denise Besai, focusing on communication tools for agriculture extension. Her topic: Development of Agriculture Extension Multi-Media Aids for the Sweet Potato Industry. She stressed the need to present Components 1 and 2 in simple, accessible formats for farmers, processors, and the wider public. Sweet potato, she noted, is a priority crop for governments across the region in their efforts to reduce the Caribbean’s $6 billion food import bill.
Key gaps and opportunities included:
- A significant yield gap between actual and potential production
- Trade opportunities with countries like Trinidad & Tobago, Barbados, and The Bahamas
- Underutilization of the entire plant
- Untapped potential for positioning sweet potato as a versatile, healthy crop in local and international markets
The component’s objectives were to:
- Improve awareness of sweet potato’s health benefits and versatility
- Create digital information products in user-friendly formats to support better production and consumption
Among the outputs were educational videos, photography, and a sweet potato recipe book titled Sweet Potato Bites.
Ms. Besai also addressed the region’s health crisis. Statistics: Non-communicable diseases account for 75% of all deaths in the Caribbean. Barbados alone loses USD $75 million annually due to lost productivity (World Bank 2024). And perhaps most alarming — 1 in 3 children in the Caribbean are overweight, a fact heavily linked to poor diet and inactivity.
With that, the session began to draw to a close. The presenters and audience alike left with a deeper understanding of the potential locked within the sweet potato, not just as a crop, but as a tool for economic development, health improvement, and regional improvement.
