Stakeholders hoping for boost in arrowroot industry

Persons tasked with overseeing the arrowroot industry are hoping to see a boost in that sector of agriculture.{{more}}

During a press conference on Friday, president of the Arrowroot Industry Company Cauldric Browne indicated that more farmers have been showing interest in planting arrowroot.

“At present we have requests from 75 farmers to plant arrowroot this year. This is a large task. Planting material is a problem, but we are trying our best to see how we can manage to get all those farmers involved, because we need to increase our acreage,” Browne said.

The president stated that current arrowroot farmers intend to replant and extend their production.

While highlighting several issues that are currently affecting the industry, the president noted some changes that will be taking place.

One such change is to make the Owia Factory the main location for farmers to purchase planting material.

“All sales of arrowroot plants will be done at one area; from the factory at Owia. In this way, we will be able to manage it effectively, rather than having several locations where farmers could go to purchase rhizomes,” he said.

Although this may be a problem for some farmers, Browne said that the Arrowroot Industry Company will try to assist in any way possible.

“We will try our best to see how we can assist transportation to the farm, if need be. Also those farmers whose lands are tractorable, we will try to assist in providing a tractor service and those will be given priority over other farm lands,” the president said.

In his address, Browne expressed hope that the yield for arrowroot will double in the next year, with at least 15 pounds of arrowroot being produced from an acre.

“This year, as you can see we have lovely rhizomes. We have better yields and you can see the size of these rhizomes,” he said, as he held up some rhizomes from this year’s yield. “We are hoping that next year we will be able to better this and that farmers can move the average yield up to 15 to 20 lbs per acre. Once this is achieved, we can say that we are moving agriculture forward. It is not hard; it is not a difficult task to do. With the six million dollar credit project…I’m hoping that farmers would capitalize on it and apply inputs on time to the crop.”