The Tribune

By EARYEL BOWLEG

ebowleg@tribunemedia.net

THE Ministry of Agriculture is pushing for development of more climate smart technologies after Hurricane Dorian rocked the country’s farming communities, an official said.

While launching the 2020 Agri-Business Expo yesterday, Permanent Secretary Joel Lewis noted the monster storm’s impact on farmers and marine resources.

“Hurricane Dorian visited two of our three biggest contributing islands to our agricultural sector – Abaco and Grand Bahama,” Mr Lewis explained.

“The farming communities were particularly devastated in terms of the loss of assets, salt intrusion on land, the loss of all but one seafood processing plant on Grand Bahama, the loss of operating capacity for our country’s biggest poultry producer and the shutdown of dozens of farms on both islands.”

Currently, the ministry is helping farmers in Abaco with their new stock and providing feed for their animals. The Caribbean Agricultural Research and Development Institute (CARDI) has secured funding for a project on Abaco and Grand Bahama.

Mr Lewis pointed to the fact that the country is in the direct path of hurricanes, which have become “more frequent and increasingly stronger” over the past ten years due to climate change, brought on by carbon emissions from larger developed nations.

“Our ministry has begun a push for the development or more climate smart technologies to be implemented by our farmers in the development of their greenhouses, shade houses, animal pens and other approaches,” he noted. “These are the beginning steps. We have more to do and farther to go and this is why it is critical to present this approach at this year’s expo. Everything is scalable. While we are limited in what we can do to prevent the kinds of environmental impacts created by our bigger neighbours, we can still do a lot to protect our food security by taking on approaches that work.”

This year’s expo theme is “Let’s get Smart with Agriculture. Grow Local, Eat Fresh” and will be held the ministry’s Gladstone Road site on March 27–28. It will showcase local farmers, producers, suppliers and agri-business professionals.

According to director of co-operatives, Cheryl Bowe-Moss, key people who have achievements in agriculture and fisheries will be honoured, particularly those from Abaco and Grand Bahama.

CARDI country representative Dr Michele Singh said the institute will be working with the Ministry of Agriculture at the expo and will be focused on “research, teaching, and learning” including a demonstration of a climate smart technology.