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THE BIOTECHNOLOGY CENTRE
Mount Industry School Garden (MISG) The Mount Industry School Garden was initiated in 2015 as a joint venture between the Rio Pedro Valley Watershed Management and Development Council (RPVW- MDC), the 4H Clubs, the Optimist Club and the Medicinal Plant Research Group (MPRG) of the Biotechnology Centre, UWI Mona Campus. Since 2022 several plants have been donated to this garden, this continued in January 2023. Youth Yam Farmers Training Program (YYFTP) at Jupiter Hill A request came in December 2022 from the Rio Pedro Valley Watershed Management and Development Council (RPVWMDC) to extend the successful field testing done in St Catherine (Glengoffe, Harker’s Hall) with tissue cultured pineapple between 2006–2009 to yam (Dioscorea spp). A field site was been identified at Harker’s Hall, St Catherine. The training will take on a structured approach with Academics to Farmers, Farmers to Academics, Farmers to Farmers, and from the elders to the youth on all matters yam. Youth farmers are being identified by the RPV Elder Farmers (each participant has to complete a form). The motto of the program is ‘The Cost is Your Success and the Data You Collect ’ and was launched in January 2023. On January 13th, 2023, a field training session was carried out. The Elder farmers have been locating yam varieties for this project since December 2022. So far twelve (12) yam varieties from four (4) yam species have been donated for this project, which will be initiated into tissue culture.
OUTREACH
Yam Farmers Initiative A program to reach yam farmers was initiated by Dr Sylvia Mitchell in January 2023 in collaboration with a team of farmers in Harker’s Hall, St Catherine and endorsement by the St Catherine 4h Clubs. The program is named the Yam Youth Farmers Training Program and brings together academics, young and old yam farmers, and agricultural educators. This collaboration has proven a good route to take for outreach with several firsts being recorded (such as D. trifida true seeds being germinated in vitro). Several field farmer training days and presentations on this program have been accomplished. A new research cluster began in 2022, which has been named the ‘Caribbean Foods for Climate Justice Research Group’. The CFCJ has been successful at getting two projects funded, one which ended in February, 2022 and the other, which is still active.
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