IICA pledges continued support for Tapakuma cassava project

Nov 26, 2015 News

The Inter American Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture (IICA) has pledged to continue collaborating with the residents of Tapakuma and with local partners to ensure that the recently re-commissioned cassava processing factory remains viable and sustainable.
The Rising Sun Agro-Processing Facility at St. Denny Village, Tapakuma, Region Two (Pomeroon/Supenaam), was re-commissioned by Minister of Agriculture Noel Holder a week ago.

Minister Holder and others at the Tapakuma recomissioning.

The facility had been opened in 2007 following studies on cassava which indicated that the industry had untapped potential.
The first commissioning was done with financial assistance from the Kellogg Foundation, Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA), the Government of Guyana and IICA.
The facility, due to a number of constraints, became non-operational in 2011.
In 2014, the Rural Enterprise and Agriculture Development (READ) project allocated $3.378M for the refurbishment of the Rising Sun Processing Facility. These funds were disbursed through a partnership between the Institute for Private Enterprise Development (IPED) and the Village Council, with IICA providing technical oversight to assist in meeting factory compliance.
During a re-commissioning of the facility, IICA country representative Wilmot Garnett disclosed that the cassava industry had faced challenges including insufficient cassava to meet the demand for optimal factory production, loss of markets due to inconsistent supply, need for scale-up of machinery and management issues and clearly defined roles and responsibilities of the stakeholders.
In seeking to address the challenges IICA in collaboration with partners National Agricultural Research and Extension Institute (NAREI), the New Guyana Marketing Corporation (NGMC), the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO)

Minister of Agriculture Noel Holder, Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Agriculture George Jervis and IICA representative, Wilmot Garnett, sample some of the products of the Tapakuma facility during the re-commissioning.

made recommendations to the Village Council and the factory operators to place corrective measures that seek to secure the viability of this industry.
As a result, the re-commissioned project will be focusing on garlic-flavoured cassava bread and cassareep.
Garnett said: “IICA’s continued commitment is to ensure that small producers/entrepreneurs, especially women and youth, are more effectively integrated into national, regional and international markets.
He added: “We will continue to collaborate with our partners to agree on the most practical way forward to address the gaps identified, and to work to ensure the viability and sustainability of the cassava industry here at Tapakuma.”