IICA presents rehabilitation and adaptation plan for agricultural disasters in the Caribbean

The Inter-American Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture (IICA) reported this Friday that it presented a roadmap for mitigation, rehabilitation and adaptation to agricultural disasters in the countries of the Caribbeanespecially with the aim of generating greater capacity to restore food production.

IICA explained that the document seeks to develop technical capacities to restore livelihood systems and improve the resilience of farming communities to disasters and climate change. It also seeks to improve and apply Rapid damage and loss assessment methodologiesin terms of technology, agricultural systems and tools, seed banks and mobile nurseries.

“We must learn from all these situations, to have an increasingly resilient and sustainable agriculture, with farmers in rural areas who produce more food, more abundant and nutritious. In the Caribbean, the early warning system must be strengthened, and there must be a seed bank, mobile nurseries, an insurance program, technology, training and damage assessment,” said the Director General of IICA, Manuel Otero.

According to the authorities, these efforts are in addition to the proposal for the creation of the Hemispheric Fund for the Resilience and Sustainability of Agriculture in the Americaswhich seeks to provide financial and technical support to countries in the region to develop and implement strategies that strengthen the resilience and sustainability of their agricultural systems, which are increasingly affected by extreme weather events.

The Minister of Agriculture of Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Caesar Saboteurreported that the Caribbean region is experiencing a climate emergency due to the devastation caused by the Hurricane Beryl at the beginning of July, which caused the loss of 98% of banana and plantain production and affected a series of other agricultural value chains.

“Saint Vincent and the Grenadines is on the brink of food insecurity, on average it has had one natural disaster per year in the last five years, which has disrupted all food chains, this added to Covid-19, 32 volcanic eruptions, severe droughts and hurricanes (…) it seeks assistance and support with direct income to producers for the next 23 months, the intention is to increase production and productivity, that our productive systems are fully operational by the end of 2024 and beginning of 2025,” Caesar explained.

The announcement was made during the meeting of the IICA Executive Committee, held in San José, Costa Rica, where the Member States of the Institute showed their solidarity with the Caribbean nations and offered their help to recover the sector.

“The Caribbean is very close, we are going to help, we are in a position to quickly provide US$ 300,000 to help some of the affected countries, we need a change of attitude and to think about the development of strategies in which resilience and rural sustainability are fundamental,” added Otero.