(Jamaica Observer) The University of the West Indies (UWI), Mona campus, says it has forged a partnership with Continental Baking Company Limited and the Government to produce cassava flour, saying that the move will save Jamaica billions of dollars over time.
Pro-Vice-Chancellor and Principal Professor Archibald McDonald said that the project will hopefully encourage investors to partner with the UWI on other ventures.
“We feel that once manufacturers see that this is not just the University of the West Indies talking, this is not something theoretical, this is something which can be converted into commercial activity, many of them will come on board,” he told the Jamaica Observer Monday Exchange.
Professor McDonald, as well as Professor Ishenkumba Kahwa, deputy principal; Professor Denise Eldemire- Shearer, campus co-ordinator, graduate studies and research; and Professor Densil Williams, executive director Mona School of Business and Management, pointed to the cassava flour project as they highlighted the UWI’s intention to use this year’s Research Days to focus on the impact that research can have on the economy.
“We need to improve our communications, we need to put our research out there more in simplified form for all to understand.
But we are going a step further, we are going to produce cassava flour and we are going to have one of the large bakeries which will produce cassava bread from this flour,” Professor McDonald said.
The gains to the country, he noted, could be significant. “We estimate that if we contract farmers and so on, we are going to save, by replacing the flour that we import… J$1 billion per year,” McDonald said.
Based on Professor McDonald’s statements, the project is far past the conception stage. “We already have the cassava bread, I have had a sample.
We are very close, we had cooperated with the Ministry of Education and we have access to land owned by the Government of Jamaica in St Elizabeth, we are collaborating with them on this project,” he told the Monday Exchange.