Profiles: Heroes, Role Models and Pioneers of Trinidad and Tobago - by Nasser Khan

23 He settled with his wife and three children in Trinidad in 1954, taking up the post of Tutor in Crop Husbandry at the Eastern Caribbean Farm Institute, later called the Eastern Caribbean Institute of Agriculture and Forestry. His areas of expertise were tropical crops, field experimentation, soils, botany, pests and diseases. In 1956 he then took up the post of Research Officer with the Cocoa Board in Trinidad, where he bred improved cuttings and hybrid seedlings and conducted other minor experimental work. He provided training and assistance to the younger professional staff of the Cocoa Research Division and made huge contributions to the breeding and development of cocoa between 1960 and 1984. His work in developing one of the world’s three most successful varieties of cocoa, the Trinidad Select Hybrid (TSH) spanned many decades and continued well into his retirement. Eight of the TSH cocoa varieties developed by Freeman are grown for resale (TSH 730, 919, 1076, 1095, 1102, 1104, 1188, 1220). These varieties “possess high yielding potential of over 1000 kg per hectare, large bean size, excellent fine flavour status and resistance to Ceratocystis wilt and Witches Broom diseases”. He is credited for introducing high density planting systems for cocoa. Once an active member of the Horticultural Society of Trinidad and Tobago, he was honoured by the Agricultural Society of Trinidad and Tobago and the University of the West Indies, which named a street on its compound after him. • 1991 Chaconia Gold Medal. FREDRICK HARDY (1889-1977) E ngland-born, he was one of the top scientists in the field of agriculture and agricultural science.  He conducted soil test and survey reports for Trinidad and Tobago and a successful Caribbean-wide soil survey.  He also educated hundreds of students over three decades and played a major part in establishing the institution that later became the Faculty of Agriculture of The University of the West Indies (UWI).