The sweet potato is the most important edible root to food security, followed by cassava in The Bahamas. Successive projects have aimed at increasing the amount of root crops produced, in an effort to satisfy increasing local demand for these commodities.

In both Abaco and Andros significant acreages of sweet potato have been planted using improved varieties. The Ministry of Agriculture, Marine Resources and Local Government has received approval for a research project: “Selection of marketable varieties of sweet potatoes and cassava.”

The purpose of the sweet project is to choose and obtain planting material for promising varieties of sweet potato and cassava, prepare trial crops in chosen islands, follow up its management and results and based on findings as to the best suited sweet potato and cassavas for production, train farmers and make planting materials accessible to farmers.

The technical and financial resources for the project will be provided by the Ministry of Agriculture, Marine Resources and Local Government, in cooperation with the Inter-American Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture (IICA), the Caribbean Agricultural Research and Development Institute (CARDI).

The technical staff of the Department of Agriculture will be responsible for managing the project, using existing programme to improve the seed availability and crop management. At the end of the project it is expected that farmers would have a wider selection of high yielding sweet potato and cassava planting material which is suited to local growing conditions.