INIDA: São Jorges & Tarrafal


INIDA has two other sites: one at the headquarters in São Jorges and the other in city of Tarrafal. We visited both to see the similarities and differences. Fortunately, for us, the sites tend to repeat the same experiments in the different climates and conditions. If we can grab the data from all of the sites to create an analysis, it would be great!

Gilbert showed us around the home site and I was surprised to learn that there is a lot going on. There are plenty of mango trees and we passed several people collecting and sorting the mangoes, but there are also different types of sweet potatoes, tomatoes, strawberries, and cassava. Also, they started an experiment in hydroponics but the original head passed away so it was never finished. When I asked him more about it, Gilbert told us there is a center of hydroponics in Cape Verde (potential engineering project maybe?). He also showed us the drip-irrigation experiment, called "rega gota-gota" here. Mackenzie and I immediately could see the difference in growth of the cassava plants: some were distinctly taller than others because of the different water levels.

When comparing to the site in Tarrafal, which Jacinto showed us, we could see that many of the same experiments were just beginning there. And the fact that the Tarrafal site has much flatter, more open land near the sea also probably influences the resulting crop growth. In addition to the popular crop types, like tomatoes, madruga/cassava, and sweet potatoes, they also have noni (a Brazilian medicinal fruit that smells - and looks -- like cheese) and parsely. It was a small site with very few sprouting crops so we finished earlier and Jacinto showed us the rest of his home town. We were able to walk along the beach and see the unusually large German-owned resort there (King Fisher).

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