Fradian Murray recently completed a PhD in Botany with a focus on crop production. Supervised by Dr. Jane E. Cohen, she researched a technique to increase the propagation rate of cassava, with her thesis entitled the ‘Rapid Propagation of Cassava by Multiple Shoot Removal: Physiological Factors and their Interrelationships Determining its Efficiency’.

Fradian's love for biology began in High School where she noticed that she was particularly fascinated with topics in human and plant biology. Like most young Jamaicans hooked on CSI and NCIS, at the time, she had dreams of becoming a forensic scientist. However, her dreams of solving crime were dashed when she struggled in vain with chemistry in the first semester. For this reason, she shifted her focus and decided to major in her first love, plant biology. By her final year she had found her rhythm and realized her particular love for crop production. Ironically, while in her teens, Fradian had written off any career which required sun exposure and harsh conditions after experiencing the sunburns, mosquito bites and muscle pains associated with accompanying her father to his fields to gather animal feed, prepare cocoa and fight bush fires. She believes it goes to show that quite often, life comes full circle.

Her circle was further defined in 2014 after she graduated with a BSc. in Applied Plant Science and began job hunting. To her surprise, every opportunity required years of experience, and none was willing to contribute to its accumulation. Feeling challenged, Fradian decided that she would create her own work experience. She then met with representatives from the nearest 4H Club and her RADA representative to assist with hosting workshops where she planned to teach farmers in her community all that she had learnt at UWI. Within this period, Dr. Jane Cohen reached out to her and told her of the university's interest in cassava research and asked if she would be willing to do a graduate research degree on cassava physiology. After much prayer, Fradian decided to take the opportunity to contribute to Jamaica’s agricultural progress in this way. From her PhD research, she has adapted the multiple shoot removal technique for rapid propagation of cassava, making it more accessible and less costly for farmers. By conducting field, greenhouse and laboratory trials to investigate interactions of physiological and agronomic factors, she has identified the characteristics needed for practical and efficient use of the system locally, using improved cassava varieties available for Jamaican growers. From this research, she has a paper in Agricultural Science (Cambridge) and two regional conference manuscripts, apart from UWI poster presentations. Her research was supported by grants and the postgraduate scholarship from The UWI’s Office of Graduate Studies and Research.

During Fradian's PhD research journey, she advised on the propagation of cassava at the UWI's Agricultural Research and Innovation Facility in Elim, St Elizabeth and the field method of starch determination of cassava for Red Stripe. She acted as a research assistant on a part-time basis for Red Stripe through the Desnoes & Geddes Foundation and its IDB funded initiative "Project Grow: Accelerating the Inclusion of Small-Scale Farmers and Youths into the Commercial Cassava Value Chain”. Fradian led the research into identifying the highest-yielding cassava varieties for planting in different agroecological zones in Jamaica. She worked in five of the largest cassava producing parishes in the country and with close to a hundred youths, helping to train them in plant cultivation and basic research methods. Fradian authored three manuscripts: the research report of the varietal trials; an extensive, climate smart cassava cultivation handbook which may be used by both farmers and extension officers; and a case study for conducting field crop research in Jamaica towards development of the cassava value chain. She also co-authored a preliminary guideline for cassava intercropping in Jamaica. All of these are groundbreaking contributions to the Jamaican cassava industry. Her contribution on the project was highlighted through collaborator, ACDI/VOCA, where her work was entered in an international photo contest (2019) for the USAID under the theme "Gender and Inclusion, Adaptation". This led to her work being highlighted on the ClimateLinks website's topic pages in 2020 and 2021. On the same project, she assisted the UWI Climate Studies Group Mona in calibrating the most recent cassava model in DSSAT, a global-wide platform for crop modelling, for use in the Caribbean, and is co-author of the paper reporting the work in Agronomy Journal.

Her most recent technical report was in collaboration with Dr. Dale Rankine on a study evaluating sweet potato yields and growth using the AquaCrop model. She is also currently assisting The UWI Climate Studies Group Mona on a project into the modification of climate change material for primary school aged youths and the disabled community. Outside of root crops, Fradian was a field researcher and report co-author for a multi-sectoral project on identifying the pollinators and other insects associated with the cocoa plant in an effort to increase the crop’s productivity.

In her spare time, Fradian edits Christian books by new authors under the comfort of air conditioning, but often finds herself longing for some piercing sunlight and farm conditions. In June 2021 she launched her outreach foundation, "Life fi Live" which aims to inspire children and young adults living in St. Thomas to aspire to live their best lives without limits. Motivating them to move beyond failure and self-doubt to achieve wealth and success, to instill the ideology that "nothing is too good for them".

Her career goals are to use crop research to contribute to the social development of rural communities and disadvantaged groups regionally and internationally, and to one day use high school leadership as a means of proactively impowering youths and positively shifting teacher-student and community interactions.

Published: January 18, 2022