The Rural Agricultural Development Authority (RADA) has joined a growing list of entities using cassava to produce by-products for consumers.

But according to the senior director of RADA’s Social Services and Home Economics Unit, Beverly Darby-Collins, the product – Cassava Pancake Mix – is not really new.

“We actually developed this [pancake mix] from 2000,” Barby-Collins told the Jamaica Observer at the Denbigh Agricultural, Industrial and Food Show held earlier this month at Denbigh, Clarendon.

“We had a little bit of a snag in that, because of the constant intervention of drought, we had a problem with cassava a couple of times, and [the pancake mix] dropped off the shelves,” Darby-Collins said.

“Reception has been good over the years, but it’s just that we have not hit the market with it as we would have liked,” she added.

“We had a lot of farmers growing cassava, so we had to develop a value-added process to be able to take off some for them. We started out with just a pan-fried bread and we worked further and developed the pancake mix,” Darby-Collins explained.

RADA, she said, has been talking with farmers and has been successful in getting them to grow more cassava.

“So we are trying to get the products back in, and in order to compete with the great Aunt Jemima, we had to box it. We had it in a pouch, but we had to go a little further with it, so we have them boxed now so we can get them out,” she told the

Observer.’

Darby-Collins stated that the pancake mix can be found in some supermarkets as well as at the Agrimart located on Old Hope Road as well as at the Mandeville RADA office and RADA St James’ Agrimart.

“The idea is to get people to know about the product because we are not a pancake-eating society, we are a bread and fry dumpling and festival society, so we have to try promote it, like we are doing at Denbigh, to get people to develop the taste for it so we can get them to purchase it,” Darby-Collins stated.

The products are manufactured at the RADA-operated Twickenham Bammies Industries located at Farmers Training Centre, Twickenham Park, Spanish Town.

The authority, she added, was also trying to improve the quality of the bammies it produces, and has added mini bammies.

“We also do cassava flour… and we also develop the pancake syrup from natural fruits such as otaheite apple, mango, and guava. We also use sorrel to do the syrup as well. We use our local fruits because all we are doing here is encouraging Jamaicans to eat Jamaican, eat what we grow and grow what we eat,” Darby-Collins stated.

She said that the production of the cassava by-products will help to reduce the island’s import bill and get more people employed.

– Javene Skyers