Vegetables Unit

Responsible for the conduct of agronomic research on vegetable crops grown in Trinidad and Tobago thereby facilitating the sustainable development of Agriculture while ensuring domestic food security.

Current Research Projects

Project 1: Characterization and evaluation of twelve (12) Seim (Dolichos sp) accessions grown in T&T.

Aim: To characterize and evaluate physical and nutritional traits of seim grown in Trinidad and Tobago. Characters being assessed: morphological characters of plant, pod, seed, yield/plant and nutritional characters.

Achievement:

• Collection of accessions
• Preliminary characterization/evaluation
• Nutritional quality being assessed

Future Work:
Publications of manuals and recommendations of most suitable varieties to be grown by farmers.

Project 2: Pumpkin improvement for the export market

Aim: To produce a uniform pumpkin variety for the export market.

Achievement:

• Survey of exporters and farmers
• Phenotypic Assortive Mating

Future Work:

• Further improvement to ensure homozygosity of desired characteristics.
• Seed multiplication and distribution.