Since 1996, Inter-American Institute for Cooperation in Agriculture (IICA) Agricultural Health and Food Specialist Dr Maxine Parris-Aaron has been working with the Women Agro Processors Development Network. This is in an effort to raise standards amongst the enterprising women in Regions One, Two, Four, Five and Nine, who continue to seek to move their skills at creating value-added foods out of farm produce beyond their cramped kitchens.
It is not an initiative that promises the dramatic transformation of either the lives of the participants or the country’s food sector. The women in the Network—more often than not—have little if any access to the urban amenities, the funding and the facilities that would otherwise help them to keep pace with the higher profile projects which,