Food Security...old talk again?

Apparently, CARICOM through its Council for Trade & Economic Development (COTED) approved a Regional Food & Nutrition Security Policy in October 2010. This little known policy has the following four objectives:

  1. Food Availability - Promote the sustainable production, processing, preparation, commercialization and consumption of safe, affordable, nutritious, high quality Caribbean food commodities/products.
 2. Food Access - Ensure regular access of Caribbean households, especially the poor and vulnerable, to sufficient quantities of safe, affordable, quality food at all times, particularly in response to diverse socioeconomic and natural shocks.
 3. Food Utilization/Nutritional Adequacy - Improve the nutritional status of the Caribbean population, particularly with respect to NCDs including diabetes, hypertension, overweight and obesity.
 4. Stability of Food Supply - Improve the resilience of the region’s national communities and households to natural and socio-economic crises.

The full policy document is available at this link.

The key question is...how do we move from talk to serious, consistent action?

An Enabling Environment for Food Production

  

Premise

1.      Farmers can provide a continuous supply of good quality food.
2.      Farmers can receive a consistent profitable price for produce.

Enabling Factors

Land

1. no flooding or effective flood control;
2. good vehicular access road;
3. leases with reasonable terms provided (state lands).

Water

4. year round supply of water for farm operations so as to minimise dependence on rain-fed food production.

Note: Calculate crop water use based on acreage to be cultivated to ensure water for irrigation will be available (similar calculation for animal husbandry). Need to understand when in the life cycle of the various crops that there will be a greater demand for water.

Praedial Larceny

5. effective control
6. or initially at least, rapid response and thorough investigation.

Planting Material

7. availability of tried and tested varieties suited to local conditions which may vary based on season;
8. disease and pest free planting material in sufficient quantity when needed;
9. need to have farmers understand the particular characteristics of each variety to be used in the field.

Technical Advice

10. primarily pest and disease control with knowledge specific to crops planted or animals reared
11. ministry should re-engineer its training of farmers and provide timely on-farm assistance (same-day preferred);
12. pest and disease symptoms and control information for all of the commercially produced crops in T&T should additionally be in the form of an interactive CDROM for use by all farmers (assisted by their computer savvy children where needed);
13. ministry should also produce high quality large posters on disease and pest symptoms, including nutritional deficiencies, and control measures; to be promoted in farming communities…..many existing posters not appropriately designed for farmers;
14. awareness campaign on the negative impacts of pesticides on humans, using real life examples from T&T, and alternative pest control measures that work in T&T;
15. soil tests must be done for all areas before cultivation, with results delivered in a timely manner, including recommendations specific to the crop type…..it can take up to 6 months to get the results from the ministry’s lab at Centeno;
16. re-introduce the  use of “green-manure” (with mung bean, crotalaria, and other legumes) to re-juvenate soils and increase organic content;
17. ministry needs to produce large charts on appropriate, crop specific agrochemical use for farmers as well as guidance to reduce agrochemical use;
18. train farmers in proper method of harvest for specific crops as well as sanitizing so as to help maintain quality to the consumer;
19. ministry should design or source appropriate crop specific crates for field packing of produce;
20. train farmers in proper packing and stacking of produce to minimise damage;
21. ministry must have updated and realistic cost of production models, even for integrated farming systems;
22. assist farmers in finding ways to lower cost of production without the sacrifice of produce quality.

 What are your views on these points outlined above?

 

A word about social media...

I am not convinced that our decision makers at the government institutions, farmer groups, and farmer support agencies fully understand how technology and technology uses are developing. I am not yet convinced that we sufficiently understand how social media as an example, could be harnessed to improve farmer access to marketing information and buyers or crop and pest control advice. Have a look at the short video below and think about how farmers and farm support stakeholders could benefit from the revolution in social media.