Workshop 7: Building Partnerships and Alliances to Scale Up Climate-smart and Adaptation Solutions in the Caribbeanat The Caribbean-Pacific Agri-Food Forum 2015 (CPAF2015) taking place 2-6 November in Barbados with support from the Intra-ACP Agricultural Policy programme, organized in partnership with the Barbados Agricultural Society (BAS) and the Inter-American Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture (IICA). http://www.cta.int/en/news/caribbean-pacific-agri-food-forum.html

1. Successful Farm-based
Initiatives in response to Climate
Change in the Caribbean:
lessons and experiences from the
field

2. Caribbean Agriculture’s
response to Climate Change
• Formal recognition began during CPACC
1997-2001
• Risk Management Training Seminar for the
Agriculture and Water Sectors. July 10-12,
2002
• Global models were interpreted in the
Caribbean context

3. • Institutional responses by IICA, FAO,
CARDI, CTA etc.
• Research focused on increased temperature,
Carbon Dioxide, salinization, extreme
weather events
Caribbean Agriculture’s
response to Climate Change

4. Adaptation – to climate change
“adjustment in natural or human
systems in response to actual or
expected climatic stimuli or their
effects, which moderates harm or
exploits beneficial opportunities”

5. • Majority of CARICOM countries contribute
relatively insignificant amounts of
emissions
• but are disproportionately vulnerable
• Adaptation is therefore more important than
Mitigation

6. What do I mean by “successful”
initiatives
• Those adaptations that addressed one or
more of the environmental impacts of
Climate Change on farm operations
• Success in the environmental sense.
HOWEVER
What we seek are Climate-Smart operations
that lead to ECOLOGICAL Success

7. ECOLOGICAL success
• The adaptations address the direct natural
environmental impacts
• Success is not only farm-based
• The Policy, Socio-Economic and Financial
environmental impacts are also addressed
LIVELIHOODS are improved

8. Our Goal is to find ways to
replicate the very few cases of
ECOLOGICAL Success
(the true test of Sustainability)

9. FAO Baseline survey of
sustainable practices
• Conducted in Barbados and 6 ECS during 2011
• “Sustainability” included environmental,
financial and socio-economic elements
• The approach was not to determine the
prevalence or statistical significance of the
employed practices but rather to seek out even
isolated cases of sustainable operation

10. • The practices considered to be sustainable
dealt with land clearing, erosion reduction
and soil improvement. Additionally, water
conservation as opposed to rainwater
harvesting and storage was a central pursuit
• But were expanded to include the entire
Agriculture Ecology
FAO Baseline survey of
sustainable practices

11. Sustainability feature
• SOIL MANAGEMENT (Soil quantity,
quality)
• Appropriate Land clearing technique used
(to maintain biodiversity, conserve soil)
• Appropriate Building site selection
• Building layout
• Terracing

12. Use of plastic mulch in Antigua (weed control, soil water conservation)

13. • Contour ploughing
• Crop cover
• Direct planting ( reduced on slopes to
reduce soil loss by erosion)
• Drainage (soil conservation, reduced runoff
rate)
• Green manure
• Nutrient recycling
• Composting
• Crop rotation

14. Bawdens, Sedgepond (sloping) soil conservation

17. Water Management
• Harvesting
• Collection from guttering
• Direct Collection from rainfall
• Adequate Drainage (to limit
waterlogging/flooding)
• Irrigation method (efficient use of water)
• Mulch (protecting soil moisture)
• Green cover
• Dispensing to animals (efficient presentation,
proper storage)

18. Sustainability feature
CROPPING PATTERN
• Crop appropriate for area/slope
• Proper plant growth habit
• Crop rotation

19. Sustainability feature
BIODIVERSITY
• Land clearing method (retaining flora and
fauna)
• Avoidance of monogenic strains/lines
• Product mix (complex agro-ecological
zone)
• Bio/cultural pest management

20. Sustainability feature
CARBON FOOTPRINT
• Reduced Fossil fuel use
• Reduced Electricity use
• Renewable energy use
• Solar
• Wind (energy generation)
• Waste reduction/less landfill use

22. Sustainability feature
WASTE DISPOSAL
• Use of crop residue/waste/entrails
• Composting
• Scrap metal/building material
• Waste water

23. Sustainability feature
MARKETING ARRANGEMENTS
• Contract sales
• Listed consumers
• Cooperatives
• Value chain involvement
• GAP certification
• Standards-driven production (Fairtrade etc)

24. Sustainability feature
TENURE
• Freehold
• Leasehold
• Rental
• None

25. Sustainability feature
SOCIAL IMPACT
• Integration into neighbourhood
• Community involvement

26. • The Study considered close to 2000
holdings/operations by GPS survey,
geography, agricultural district, and
importance of the major crop/product,
• yet there were VERY FEW examples of
operations utilizing a full set of sustainable
practices across environmental, financial
and socio-economic spheres.

27. “One of the most important uses of this
study could be the reintroduction of
Good Agricultural Practices with a
focus on Climate-Smart Agriculture
that could, in one fell swoop, ensure
the viability of the sector in a
comprehensive way.”

28. CARDI APP Baseline data
• Producers in 14 countries were asked “Have
you made changes to your operations as a
result of the changing weather patterns

29. Changes to operation occasioned by weather

30. Knowledge of resilient cultivars

31. Awareness of improved Breeding Stock

32. Weather-related disruption to income stream

33. Initiatives recorded during the
IFAD-IICA CARIFORUM Project
• Farmers practise soil and water conservation
through contour farming; the use of grass
barriers, check dams, hedgerows and
windbreaks; minimum tillage practices, and
application of mulch and other forms of green
manure.

34. • Other practices include zero-grazing,
maintenance of adequate drainage systems,
strip cropping, maintaining ground cover,
use of drip irrigation or micro-sprinklers,
and rain water harvesting. Farmers have
also diversified their production system to
include a variety of crops,
Initiatives recorded during the
IFAD-IICA CARIFORUM Project

35. • Water management practices among
stakeholders include rainwater harvesting,
drip irrigation and establishment of ponds
and water catchments.
Initiatives recorded during the
IFAD-IICA CARIFORUM Project

36. • In the Bahamas, systems have been
developed for adaptation to various levels
of soil salinization, atmospheric CO2
enrichment and increased temperatures.
Systems have also been developed to use
low quality (saline) water for irrigation.
Initiatives recorded during the
IFAD-IICA CARIFORUM Project

37. • In Belize, local producers are using
traditional knowledge and adoptable new
technologies, including adjusting planting
schedules, and applying alternative energy
applications (solar water-irrigation pumps
and solar powered electric livestock
fencing, biogas) to reduce energy costs
Initiatives recorded during the
IFAD-IICA CARIFORUM Project

38. • Most farmers have begun to adopt the use of
protective structures (tropical green houses)
and fertigation, post harvest technology and
storage units (onion and grains) and silvo-
pastoral systems (forage & protein banks) for
sustainable production to respond to longer,
drier, hotter temperatures and pest incidence
increases.
Initiatives recorded during the
IFAD-IICA CARIFORUM Project

39. • Farmers are now investing in the
establishment of reliable water sources to
cope with severe drought such as well and
water catchment construction for crop
irrigation and artificial lagoons with
controlled valves for livestock producers.
Initiatives recorded during the
IFAD-IICA CARIFORUM Project

40. • Climate change adaptation strategies also extend
to the production of value added products by
smallholders.
• For example the expansion of the Flowers Bank
Community Group services to the commercial
production of virgin cohune oil, and the
production of other products such as soap,
candles and activated charcoal
Initiatives recorded during the
IFAD-IICA CARIFORUM Project

41. • Other examples of adaptation strategies
practised by smallholders include organic
production by the BelleVue Chopin organic
farmers and greenhouse production of
nursery crops at the Giraudel Flower
Group’s headquarters in Dominica.
Initiatives recorded during the
IFAD-IICA CARIFORUM Project

42. Initiatives recorded during the
IFAD-IICA CARIFORUM Project
Compost making machine

43. Initiatives recorded during the IFAD-IICA
CARIFORUM Project
Giraudel Nursery

44. Jamaica continues to lead the
way in Protected Agriculture

45. Pond construction to provide solar-pumped water
Jamaica Bauxite Institute photos

47. German-Grenadian Pilot Programme on Integrated Climate
Change Adaptation Strategies, funded by the German Ministry
for the Environment, Nature Conservation, Building and Nuclear
Safety (BMUB), implemented by the Environment Division of the
Grenadian Ministry of Agriculture, Lands, Forestry, Fisheries and the
Environment, GIZ and UNDP.

48. Temperature of compost after 2 weeks - 45.5 C

49. ECOLOGICAL success
• The adaptations address the direct natural
environmental impacts
• Success is not only farm-based
• The Policy, Socio-Economic and Financial
environmental impacts are also addressed
LIVELIHOODS are improved

50. Approaching Ecological Success
Lennox Lampkin
Full range of natural environment adaptations
Water/Soil/Biodiversity/Terracing
Socio-economic reach using “new media”
contributions to schools, activist level
involvement
Targeted marketing

51. The Caribbean Climate-Smart AgricultureThe Caribbean Climate-Smart Agriculture
projects focus on five general areasprojects focus on five general areas
1. Adaptation through adoption of innovations and
good agronomic practices
2. Mitigating the impacts of climate change
3. Fostering community resilience through rural
entrepreneurship
4. Strengthening linkages between the
agricultural/rural sector, tourism and the
environment
5. Promoting the participation of farm families,
women and youth into the practice of Climate