Northern Caribbean University to be key player in national potato-growing project

Northern Caribbean University (NCU), an institution operated by the Seventh-day Adventist Church in Jamaica, recently signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the government of Jamaica for the implementation of the in-vitro propagation of Irish potato seed program. The MoU was signed between NCU, the Ministry of Industry Commerce Agriculture and Fisheries, the Jamaica Social Investment Fund, and the Scientific Research Council, in Kingston, on January 25. The institutions will use NCU’s laboratory to help facilitate the production of 800,000 Irish potato tissue culture plantlets with micro tubers. The program will be funded with more than US $141,500 during the next 12 months. Minister of Industry, Commerce, Agriculture and Fisheries, Karl Samuda, said the initiative will drastically reduce the import bill on Irish potatoes. More