3 weeks ago
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Technical staff from the Ministry of Agriculture, Food Security, and Enterprise (MAFSE) is working with local potato farmers to improve production after completing an exchange visit to Peru. The exchange visit was held from June 2 through to the 6th, and saw the technical officers engage directly with key stakeholders in Peru’s well-established potato value chain, gaining invaluable firsthand learning experiences. Luis Hernandez, Director of the Research and Innovation Center, Central Farm, said that the exchange visit was aimed at building capacity for the officers who would in turn be assisting farmers.
Luis Hernandez, Director of the Research Central Farm: “Basically, the objective of the exchange exchange visit were to provide capacity building for Belizean technical officers of the Ministry of Agriculture and also for us to conduct field visits for the potato value chain in Peru under the project titled “Strengthening the Potato Value Chain in Belize.” The key outcome of the exchange visit was to strengthen technical alliance and to exchange experiences between both delegations on the value chains for quality potato and value chain products. It is important to note that this activity is within the South-South Project and International Cooperation of the Country of Belize for potato and vegetables. All of us work hand in hand, you know, whereas we have the research department in tandem with the extension department and transferring that information that we’ve learned to the farmers. So basically we represent the needs of the farmers and therefore we provide, generate that information and transfer it to them. The whole objective is to ensure that we meet the needs of the farmers and provide them with better insight and technologies for them to improve productivity and at the same time increase real income.”
Hernandez said that the Ministry is also working on introducing new types of potatoes that, when adapted to Belize’s climate, would help to reduce imports.
Luis Hernandez, Director of the Research Central Farm: “Belize has a short window for the production of potatoes. As you are aware, potatoes prefer a cold at temperature. And during that period, we only have a short period for us to produce and plant potatoes from November to December. So the importance of this is for us to have alternatives. And the fact remains that we have potatoes for consumption and then we have a window, a gap for potato fries, right? And we import around 50%. So if we are able to produce our own potato fries then we can limit the amount of importation. With that being said, you know, we are currently working with SIP, the Centro Internacional de Papas, and we’ve imported a total of 15 clones of which we have multiplied already and of these we’re hoping that four of them are able to adapt. According to the statistics they’re saying that they were tested in Africa and if successful then we can introduce these variety and have alternatives to the farmers. Therefore in addition to that we’re looking at if we could have the ability to produce seeds and limit our importation from the US. Yes, we’re looking at food security and improving the livelihood of the rural community. Belize has a lot of potential but like any other country we have our limiting factors and that is in that regard that we reached out to them in regards to technologies that are available. Unfortunately time was limited but we’re hoping that we have an extension of this project in collaboration with SIP and the other stakeholders.”
The visit was done in collaboration with Peru’s Ministry of Agrarian Development and Irrigation. The officers who accompanied Hernandez on the exchange visit were Lilian Suntecum, a Research Officer from Central Farm, and William Can, the Cayo District Agriculture Coordinator.
English (US) ·