Gillian Bidaisee
Overview
Gillian is a Contract Officer I (since August, 2002), (also Graduate Research Assistant (1997 – 2002) and Technical Assistant (1992 – 1996) in the Morphology section.
Responsibilities include characterising cacao fruit, flower and leaf. Managing the laboratory and training interns and visitors.
Providing guidance to the technical staff and assisting with their training and development.
Preparing mature pods (ripe and unripe) to be photographed and documenting the descriptions for the Cacao Clones Manual.
Areas of Expertise
- Collating and documenting morphological data for cacao. This is for the purpose of identification, diversity assessment and preliminary evaluation, as well as for the improvement and enhancement of cacao in further breeding programmes.
- Trained staff from the Ministry of Food Production, Land and Marine Affairs (MFPLMA) and fully characterised (fruit and flower) eleven of their TSH clones.
- Recently assisted with the training of visitors from St. Lucia and Uganda.
Projects and Publications
- Morphological Characteristion of cacao (1992 - present)
- CFC/ICCO/BI project (1998 – 2009)
- Cacao Clones Manual project (2002 – present)
- RDI project (2012 - present)
Maharaj, K., Maharaj, P., Bekele, F.L., Ramnath, D., Bidaisee, G.G., Bekele, I., Persad, C., Jennings, K., and Sankar, R. (2011). Trinidad selected hybrids: An investigation of the Phenotypic and agro-economic traits of 20 selected cacao cultivars. Tropical Agriculture (Trinidad) Volume 88 (4).
Bekele, F.L., Butler, D.R. and Bidaisee, G.G. (2008a). Upper Amazon Forastero cacao (Theobroma cacao L.) 1: An assessment of phenotypic relationships in the International Cocoa Genebank, Trinidad. Tropical Agriculture (Trinidad) Vol 85 No. 1 January 2008: 1-15.
Bekele, F.L., Iwaro, A.D., Butler, D.R. and Bidaisee, G.G. (2008b). Upper Amazon Forastero cacao (Theobroma cacao L.) 2: An overview of Parinari clones from a breeder’s perspective. Tropical Agriculture (Trinidad). Vol 85 No. 1 January 2008: 16-33.
Contact Information
Cocoa Research Centre
The University of the West Indies
St. Augustine, Trinidad.
Tel: (868) 662 2002 Ext. 83330
Fax: (868) 662 8788
E-mail: Gillian.Bidaisee@sta.uwi.edu
