ABSTRACT
In 1498, Christopher Columbus landed in Trinidad. Tobago was first inhabited in 1632 when a Dutch company sent some settlers. In 1802, Trinidad became a British colony and so did Tobago in 1814. Together, the two tropical islands formed a joint Crown colony in 1889. They were granted self-governance in 1956, got independence in 1962 and became a republic in 1976. In 2004, farmers identified three major problems in their agricultural production: the high cost of agricultural inputs, the unavailability of mineral fertilizers when required and the increasing land tax. Wet soils have generally been considered best for dasheen. In the 1960s, dasheen farmers preferred running water to stagnant water, the latter resulting in anaerobic conditions and rotting of the corms. The identification of local names of aroid cultivars was most prominent among eddo farmers. Farmers in Hawaii burned growing weeds around the crop to release the nutrients, a practice of tannia farmers around Toco in the mid-1960s.
