By Grace-Anne King on Thursday, 10 March, 2022 at 05:43 PM

Several departments in the agriculture sector are using new technologies to advance food security in Barbados.

Carlos Gilkes, the Acting Technical officer at the National Conservation Commission (NCC), said that the management of the NCC is looking at ways to implement new technology within the organisation.

“We do have a tissue culture laboratory here at the NCC. This is where we would use plant cells and tissues to grow plants. In some cases, a plant can be grown from a single cell,” Gilkes explained.

He mentioned that the NCC had made progress in utilising and maintaining tissue culture technology and intended to use their findings to create additional food sources for Barbadians.

“Presently we are looking to use tissue culture growth on the expansion of the Musa family which are the banana, plantains, and figs,” Gilkes revealed.

He explained that the Musa family was an important starting point to reduce the import bill by expanding the number of raw products that are produced locally. Giles added that the majority of the bananas sold in supermarkets are imported.

The NCC is not the only department applying new technologies in various ways. Sherlock King, the Manager of Markets in the Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security stated that the markets had been upgraded in a effort to increase exposure and sales for the vendors.

“We have put in Wi-Fi within the markets so that the vendors can better advertise their goods with social media, so they access a wider clientele,” King remarked.

He also explained that refrigerated display cabinets were another investment added to the market, and were made for butchers to display fresh meat products.