Members of the public should be aware that the Farquharson Institute of Public Affairs has promoted agricultural development in our island. A distinguished member of our council is, inter alia, an expert on cassava and submits this thoughtful essay for your consideration and comment.

PART ONE OF A THREE-PART ARTICLE

The overall climate for Jamaican agriculture, domestic and export, is not very bright, and will be even less so when all protective tariffs against imported crops must be removed now that the CSME has come into being.

The outlook for banana and sugar is very uncertain. The newer "non-traditional" crops have found growing ethnic niche markets in the metropolitan countries as well as through permeation to the mainstream segment. However, much of the potential is not being realised, in large part because of local and often controllable factors, not just foreign competition.

It is increasingly clear that our still current preoccupation with export agriculture in terms of primary products is basically causing us and most of other Third World countries to compete with one another into greater poverty. The recognition of this has elicited many calls for value to be added to primary produce, ie, for a genuine agro-industry. It is true that there have been, for many years, some products so qualified, but they have been pitifully few and a lineup of such products would show little change or addition from year to year.

It is also true that in recent years there has been the emergence of a hot pepper and jerk sauce industry. But the market can bear only so many brands of a culinary item; too much of a me-too mentality here. And, inevitably, foreign imitations have proliferated.

For quite some time the Scientific Research Council/Food Technology Institute has been virtually the only agency engaged in, on a meaningful scale, research & development in food. It has quite a list of products, which appear commercially viable but largely waiting to be taken up by the private sector.

The sorrel chutney and related products are relatively outstanding successes only because the institution had taken on the task of actively cultivating/creating the market, developing proper packaging and labeling - successfully enough to be transferred to a private entity. A line of pea soups has also been licensed to another group.

This article presents a case for a cassava industry to be run along the line of a modern processing enterprise, that is, with focused engagement in all aspects of raw material production, post-harvest, processing, improvement of present products and new product development, packaging and marketing. In addition, attention would also be given to the optimal use of peel material, amounting to 18-20 per cent of tuber weight, for animal feed ingredient and/or compost/biogas production.

One cannot of course accurately quantify the benefits in rural development that would accrue to the areas that might be involved but it should not be inconsiderable.

Cassava, in the period of its cultivation here, has been a Cinderella crop. It has undergone many cycles in the extent of cultivation, of interest here and from abroad concerning its use and export potential, of attempts to industrialise the scale on cultivation and manufacture of products using cassava as a raw material. If there is any one reason which could begin to explain adequately the failures, it may be found in C Roy Reynolds' highly instructive and not a little interesting Gleaner article of November 18, 1973.

"The long, long search to develop a cassava industry", in which he stated, "That we have so far failed to develop a viable industry based on these locally grown items may be due to lack of tenacity rather than technical unfeasibility".

At long last, there may be a break in the long story of promises appearing but not fulfilled. The cassava pancake developed by Twickenham Bammies/RADA and in a personal way by Mrs Lorna Gooden seems the possible start of a cassava product industry. To go beyond the start requires however, it seems to the writer, a totally thought out approach to the matter in the manner outlined above.

The new bammy

There is a need, it appears to this writer, for an accelerated, concerted thrust beyond the cassava pancake and the traditional bammy in order for a real cassava industry to exist and endure.

Although cassava use in Jamaica has been mostly in the form of the bammy and generally liked, a more extensive use as a carbohydrate/energy source has been restricted by the relative cheapness and popularity of wheat and rice and their ease and convenience of use, as well as the perishability of the raw cassava when reaped.

It is probably perceived as being not as cost-effective (in the form of commercial bammy) as bread and its use requires, after purchase from a store, soaking in milk/water, and steaming and frying. Also, for the overseas market, even in the ethnic segment, the traditional packaging is now hopelessly crude in visual appeal and information content.

The above points have been made in an article of the community paper, St Bess, vol 2/16, of Aug 15-28, 1999, and headlined, "Here comes St Bess Bammies", which reported on an Alpart-sponsored project for the making of bammies. The article quoted the project's executive summary as noting that, "in the export market, consumers are purchasing more low-fat foods as a result of increased social value placed in being healthy.. Poor packaging, short shelf life, mediocre taste, and relatively low quality are some of the factors which have had a negative impact on bammy sales in the past".

All of the above negative factors are amenable to research and development. In the absence of the project's full text the mention of low-fat food needs to be examined since bammy is usually fried before eating. Steaming is of course a low fat option but is perhaps less convenient to do.

Being fat-free is not the only claim that can be made. Cassava is inherently gluten-free (of importance to the small but significant proportion of the population affected by the gluten in wheat, rye and oat products), of low glycemic index and therefore supposedly suitable for diabetics.

As traditionally made, bammy is also salt- and preservative-free, though some processors include one or both for taste and longer shelf life. Again, the making of a salt-free but tasty and preservative-free but long shelf life product is entirely amenable to development.

With proper development and promotion, cassava, with all of the above attributes, in the forms of bammy and bread, could well be a major player in health food consciousness. It is virtually an ideal energy source. There seems to be no other crop, temperate or tropical, which can match cassava's blend of virtues in this function. This is especially so in view of the fact that diabetes has become a major health disorder in countries with a largely westernised diet and lifestyle.

An item in the Gleaner of August 12, 1988, titled, "Researchers recommend cassava diet for diabetics", reports of an article in the West Indian Medical Journal, vol 37/2 (1988) which dealt with research concerning diabetes mellitus. Cassava, properly prepared, was stated as preferred over the more used wheat in diets of diabetes mellitus patients; wheat flour products gave glycemic responses, which were 200 per cent greater than those produced by equivalent amounts of cassava products.

The researchers also concluded that its substitution for wheat flour in the diet of the diabetic and the obese can lead to its increased cultivation and ultimately increased earnings for local farmers and foreign exchange. A Gleaner article of October 17, 1991, "Changing lifestyles causing health problems", reports of a meeting by the CFNI (Caribbean Food and Nutrition Institute) in Kingston.

Concern was expressed by Dr George Miller of Northwich Park Hospital, England, about the increasing incidence of death caused by heart attacks in the English-speaking Caribbean. The West Indians in the UK had a death rate from heart attack three times as that reported in Jamaica. This was attributed to high-fat, low-fibre foods replacing a traditional diet of complex carbohydrates which include roots, tubers, staples, pulses, vegetables, etc, which were formerly the main diet of West Indians.

The Gleaner of December 6, 1991, carried an article, "High-fibre diets reduce breast cancer risk", in which an Australian study found that fibre was the dietary component with the greatest role in preventing breast cancer. Some women may be able to reduce their risk of developing breast cancer by increasing the proportion of fibre-rich foods in the diet, to about 28 grams per day (one ounce).

The reduction is as much as 50 per cent. That diabetes and hypertension and the various ailments derived there from are the results of dietary and lifestyle changes led by the Western world is dealt with in a feature article of Newsweek of September 4, 2000, titled, "Diabetes, a growing health crisis".

It reports of an alarming increase of diabetes in the US across ethnic boundaries and age groups. Type-2 diabetes, an inability to utilise insulin for the metabolism of glucose, once thought of as being a disease of the middle-aged and the elderly is now affecting large numbers of teenagers.

Studies showed that there is a strong correlation between obesity and type-2 diabetes and for the former to be linked to diet and lifestyle, ie, a high-calorie diet (especially from fat and excess sugar) and lack of exercise.

There have been reports before and after the articles cited above and which amplify the theme as described above. The US government and other countries have taken serious notice of the problem and have accordingly issued dietary recommendations for the general public and government-supported institutions, especially schools. Fast foods have come under fire and they are responding accordingly, in perhaps more than token ways but still less than fully satisfactory.

The private sectors abroad have responded in their own way by offering carbohydrate ingredients as substitutes for refined wheat flour, white rice, both used extensively in normal diets. These ingredients are claimed to be complex carbohydrates and therefore have low glycemic indices, ie, they do not produce a suddenly higher level of glucose after ingestion.

These ingredients are flours from arrowroot, taro, sorghum, cassava. Of these flours, cassava may be considered to be the most versatile and available and, in some uses, virtually unique, eg, for tapioca pudding. They can be found offered for sale via web sites, at prices which would make the production and marketing of cassava flour an attractive economic activity, provided the agronomy and processing technology can be got right.

There are thus good reasons and opportunities for the greater use of cassava with the employment of a proper strategy of development and promotion. The purely technical aspects, including having a longer shelf life, higher quality, and better taste of products, can be addressed by food technology.

Dr David Lee is a distinguished council member of the Farquharson Institute. A graduate of Wolmer's and the UWI, he holds a PhD in Organic Chemistry. He has worked at the SAC, was head of the Government Forensic Laboratory, and, significantly, introduced DNA technology for the first time to the Caribbean in 1995. His deep and informed interest in agronomy and agro industry also inform his detailed research.

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