By Indrawattie Natram

LIVING in the Amerindian community of Tapakuma/St Denny’s, Pomeroon/Supenaam (Region Two) can be quite challenging for underqualified women to access jobs and to assist in contributing to their families financially, due to the lack of resources as well as the limited availability of electricity and other infrastructure. In these communities, women are forced to either migrate or to seek jobs on the coastland. But women living in this area and determined to earn their independence, have tapped into value-added production using ground provision.

The Cassava Processing Facility located in the area, approximately an hour’s drive from Anna Regina, Essequibo Coast, has given the women the opportunity to change their lives.

With the use of solar energy, a group of women have formed themselves into a group, Rising Sun Products Enterprise, enabling other women to join thus providing them with a better life. The facility, which has been dormant for several years due to lack of funds, was resuscitated in 2017 and now is supplying cassava bread, flavoured cassava biscuits, as well as sweet cassava cakes, called “Quinches”.

With the use of renewable energy, the women have managed to produced tasty products from cassava- a ground provision that is readily available in their community at a cheap cost.

President of Rising Sun Product, Gwendolyn Chappelle, said Tapakuma cassava products are reaching many local supermarket shelves, with the latest supplier being N&S Mattai and Company. Chappelle, said the efforts of the women are being recognised because she is receiving positive feedback from customers.

“We take pride in making our cassava products, when we get orders we get more motivation, we are glad that Tapakuma products are reaching far in the city,” Chappelle said.

The mother of five said that women would gather from around the community as early as seven in the morning, twice monthly, to make cassava bread and cassava biscuits. The process she said has become shorter since the facility has modern equipment. Previously they were forced to manufacture the
products manually, however, with the help from the Rural Enterprise and Agriculture (READ) and the Inter-American Institute Co-operation on Agriculture (IICA), the factory was able to acquire the necessary finances as well as training opportunities to reach the demanding markets.

PROVIDING EMPLOYMENT
The local provision is purchased in large quantities from farmers within the community and often times due to demand more women are hired to help in the process. The process of making the cassava bread takes approximately one hour to produce 300 cassava bread and commences with the washing, peeling, re-wash, grating, extracting the juice, heating, re-entering the graters and shifting them into the baking pan.

The art of cassava bread baking was inherited by the women’s ancestors who taught them to make the stable Amerindian diet of cassava bread. On a daily basis, 1,000 bitter cassavas are purchased from farmers.
The women said that the products are Tapakuma’s pride and the production has enabled them to earn the value of independence and determination for a better life.

MARKETING

Another woman who works with the group, Veneassa Wong, said that the products are available at the Guyana Marketing Co-Operation, Safeway Supermarket Essequibo and Mattai in Georgetown. Wong said, however, their aim is to tap into the international markets where they would be able to produce in large quantities.

She also explained that much assistance is given to the facility by ICCA and a women’s group called the Agro Processor Development Network (APDN). She said the group would help in the marketing as well as sponsor exhibitions where they can get the opportunity to showcase their products to the rest
of Guyana.

Wong said that at the moment, she uses her cell phone to take orders via calls and on the internet. She, however, wishes that the community of Tapakuma can acquire electricity so that they can get WIFI in order to access a better quality of internet, in an effort to market their product more. The women also desire to have their own Facebook page so that they can share their products as well as maximise on the overseas markets. The challenge, however, remains with the unavailability of electricity in the rural community and the lack of satellites.

The Tapakuma Agro-Processing Facility is a one-of-a-kind facility in Region Two that enables Amerindian women to add value to the cassava product. Operation of the factory ceased in 2002 but in 2012, it returned to operation with the help of the Ministry of Agriculture. However, in 2016 it became dormant before once again going back into operation in 2017.

The building was refurbished with the assistance of IICA and READ early in 2012. IICA had extended a partnership to the community in 1998 but in 2014 under the Rural Enterprise and Agriculture (READ) the project was allocated G$3.378M for the refurbishment of the Rising Sun Processing facility. The funds were disbursed through the partnership of IPED and the Village Council, with IICA providing technical oversight to assist in meeting factory compliance.