IICA and Partners host climate change symposium

IICA and the Ministries of Agriculture, Forestry, Fisheries, Rural Transformation, Industry and Labour, and Finance, Economic Planning, Sustainable Development and Information Technology hosted a symposium on climate change on December 12 at the NIS Conference Facility in Kingstown.

The activity was conducted for stakeholders from across the agricultural sector and included farmers, representing several farmers’ organisations, and technical officers from the two ministries. The objective of the symposium was to share information on climate change and climate change impacts and the actions currently underway or required to build resilience across the agricultural sector.

The brief opening ceremony at the start of the symposium heard addresses from Yasa Belmar and Michael Dalton, representing the Ministry of Finance, Economic Planning, Sustainable Development and Information Technology and IICA respectively. Belmar, in her address highlighted the need for urgent global action to meet agreed targets of limiting temperature rise to 1.50 C by the turn of the century, to avoid irreversible adverse environmental changes which would affect especially the most vulnerable ecosystems such as wetlands, small islands and coastal and marine ecosystems.

Dalton in his brief address emphasized the need for coordination and action at the community and farm level to build resilience among stakeholders in the agricultural sector.

Nyasha Hamilton, from the Department of Economic Planning and Sustainable Development, delivered the opening presentation on climate change, presenting to the audience information on the causes and effects of global warming and the consequential environmental changes.

Director of Forestry, Fitzgerald Providence delivered a presentation on the forestry ecosystems in the context of a changing climate and impacts on communities and the nation as a whole. Providence highlighted the work of the forestry Division to protect and enhance the forest environments across the country.

Donawa Jackson of the Ministry of Agriculture’s Extension Division focused his presentation on the agricultural sector, current practices in agricultural production systems and types of interventions promoted by the Department of Agriculture to encourage Good Agricultural Practices among farmers for long-term sustainability of the sector and welfare of the producers who utilize these assets for their livelihoods.

Michael Dalton, IICA’s Technical Specialist delivered a presentation on the work of his organisation in the implementation of a project under the Japan Caribbean Climate Change Partnership (J-CCCP). This project, titled promoting the adoption of climate smart agriculture practices among small-scale producers is promoting the concept of climate change adaptation on farms through farm demonstration plots at five sites across St Vincent. These sites all show good agriculture practices for the management of soil, water and crops. A key feature of the demonstrations is the installation of rainwater harvesting systems for capture of rainwater from farm building and subsequent use in irrigation through dripline systems.

The workshop was well received by the 45 participants present many of whom expressed their own opinions on the subject and the need for an accelerated process to build resilience among the farming population across St. Vincent and the Grenadines.

The J-CCCP is currently being implemented by the UNDP in eight countries across the Caribbean with financing from the Government of Japan.