The CARICOM Special Ministerial Task Force on Food Production and Food Security (MTF) will convene a strategic meeting this week to chart the way forward for the agriculture sector following the significant impact of Hurricane Beryl on some Member States.
H.E. Dr Mohamed Irfaan Ali, President of Guyana, and CARICOM’s Lead Head of Government with responsibility for agriculture and food security announced the decision on Sunday during a virtual broadcast. The significant impact Hurricane Beryl caused on the agriculture sector of the Region must be addressed in a comprehensive manner, President Ali said.
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He expressed grave concern over the setback Hurricane Beryl will have on the 25 by 2025 food security plan, which is intended to reduce the Region’s food import bill by 25 percent by 2025.
Beryl was the first storm of the 2024 Atlantic hurricane season. It affected Barbados and Saint Lucia on 1 July; and went on to severely impact St. Vincent and the Grenadines and Grenada on the same day as a Category 4 hurricane. Jamaica felt its wrath on 3 July. President Ali described the situation in Grenada, particularly in Carriacou and Petite Martinique as “horrific” with livestock, cash, and permanent crops being wiped out.
In St. Vincent and the Grenadines, there was significant destruction of crops, while the damage on Union Island was pegged at almost 100 per cent. In addition to crop devastation, the fishing industry in Barbados, was “severely damaged” with one-third of the Bridgetown Fishing Harbour being destroyed and more than 200 fishing vessels damaged or destroyed. Saint Lucia suffered setbacks with an initial assessment of 35 percent damage to the sector. Jamaica also suffered extensive damage, President Ali said.
Member States that were hit were on track to achieve the 25 by 2025 targets that they had set themselves, he said.
“The initial assessment is heart-wrenching to our farmers, to our governments, and to the people of these countries. It is heart-wrenching because of the tremendous investment, the tremendous policy commitments, and budget support that was placed in the agriculture sector. Since 2020, the investment in infrastructure,
water systems, technology, crop variety, farm support, farm to market infrastructure, many of these countries would have lost all of these investments,” the President said.
He said initial estimations place the damage to the investment, infrastructure, crops, and livelihoods in the vicinity of tens of millions of dollars.
“So not only is the initial investment and cost of damage concerning to me as Lead Head on Agriculture, but it is also the long-term investment costs to rebuild the infrastructure, to find resources to recapitalize the farmers … A lot of the crops damaged are long-term crops also– seven years to maturity to get high-yielding variety; to get inter-cropping in place whilst investment is placed in permanent long-term crops. So, there are a lot of medium and long-term issues in the agriculture sector in the Region that must be addressed and addressed in a comprehensive way,” he said. He pointed out that infrastructure, retooling, grants, supporting farmers and fishers to recover assets, are some of the areas that have to be considered.
The focus now, the President said, is on mobilizing stakeholders and resources to address the setback to the 25 by 25 initiative. That approach to the “build back” phase will include seeking support of development partners including the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the
United Nations (FAO) and the Inter-American Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture (IICA).
