The University of the West Indies-Mona and the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Science have signed a research agreement focused on developing and innovating technologies to preserve the shelf-life and quality of sweet potato.

The agreement involves research by the Laboratory of Crop Science, UWI Mona campus, headed by Professor Noureddine Benkeblia, and the Postharvest Science Laboratory, Institute of Sweetpotato Research/Xuzhou Sweetpotato Research Center, Xuzhou Academy of Agricultural Sciences of the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Science (CAAS), headed by Dr. Qinghe Cao.

The agreement, which was by The UWI Mona Principal, Professor Archibald McDonald and CAAS Director, Professor Fei Xu, will also seek to innovate technologies aimed at improving the ‘storability’ of sweet potato varieties that are grown in Jamaica and China.

Under the agreement, the Laboratory of Crop Science at The UWI Mona will deploy its expertise in developing the Modified Atmosphere Packaging (MAP) technology to extend the shelf-life of sweet potatos; the Postharvest Science Laboratory, Institute of Sweetpotato Research/Xuzhou Sweetpotato Research Center will investigate the selectivity of the different genotypes of sweetpotato and run some basic experiments on their storability under standard storage conditions. [. . .]

For full article, http://myspot.mona.uwi.edu/marcom/newsroom/entry/5776