Recovery and Resilience: Post-emergency Crop Agriculture and Food Security Efforts in St. Vincent and the Grenadines

Import substitution, research and development and targeted funding for the agriculture to meet food security targets are the order of the day for St. Vincent and the Grenadines. This comes after the major sector suffered food supply chain interruptions from the COVID-19 pandemic, 32 eruptions of the La Soufriere volcano and damage from hurricane Elsa, all between 2020 and 2021. 

Perhaps the sharpest of the impacts was caused by the volcanic eruptions, which resulted in a state of emergency that limited the availability and affordability of food. Quoting UNDP preliminary estimates relating to the volcano in his budget speech of 2022, Minister of Finance Camillo Gonsalves said, “the eruptions damaged over 4,200 acres of productive agricultural land, displaced 2,875 registered farmers and 308 fisher folk and caused a massive 230 million in loss and damage to the agricultural sector.   

In January 2023, almost two years after La Soufriere erupted in April 2021, St. Vincent along with OECS neighbours St. Lucia and Grenada negotiated emergency funding from the World Bank to combat food insecurity. St. Vincent has accessed US$10 million through this facility. The St. Vincent Times reported that the funds would drive an action plan to, “purchase and distribute farm equipment, set up greenhouses, distribute seedlings, install refrigerated containers and trucks for the storage and transportation of perishable foodstuffs, improve artificial insemination, distribute livestock and poultry to farmers, install Fish Aggregating Devices (FADs) and conduct training for farmers and fishers.”

Support from CARDI

But the government is not alone in its mission. Also active in the recovery efforts is the Caribbean Agricultural Research and Development Institute (CARDI), an organisation established by CARICOM in 1975 to drive development of agricultural sectors in member countries. 

CARDI has already been instrumental in helping St. Vincent and the Grenadines to diversify crop agriculture from bananas after the decline and then halting of preferential trade access to Europe by the year 2000 collapsed the then “green gold” export industry.  CARDI introduced new crops and varieties while improving pest and disease management and  enhancing soil and water conservation. It has especially supported the development of the cassava, sweet potato and dasheen industries. In addition to several other programmes it has also established country-specific targets aimed at import substitution to improve food security. 

Import substitution for Onions and Irish Potatoes

CARDI country representative in St. Vincent and crop protection specialist, Mr. Gregory Linton explains that, “St. Vincent and the Grenadines has committed to reducing its food import bill by 25% by 2025 as part of a joint CARICOM initiative. CARDI wishes to validate and support two major imported crops which are onions (Allium cepa) and Irish Potatoes (Solanum tuberosum).

He notes that based on figures from the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry, Fisheries, Rural Transformation, Industry and Labour (MAFFRTIL), in 2016 346,496 kg of Onion was imported valued at EC $1.05 million representing 6.69 and 3.24 % of the total weight and value respectively of all imported agricultural food commodities. For the same period Irish potato imports saw a volume of 1.14 million kg at a value of EC $4.93 million. These figures represented 22.02% of the total weight and 15.04% of the total value of agriculture food. Successfully producing these crops locally could make a significant dent in the import bill.

In addition, affordability is an essential feature of the products.  Shallow says farmers can expect to get more value for their money because The Plant Doctor’s products have longer lasting positive effects when compared to synthetic products.

Reviving the Coconut Industry

Noting that there is a high demand for both fresh and dry coconut as well as coconut-based products Linton noted that CARDI, with the support of the European Union through the 11th European Development Fund (EDF), is implementing the project Alliances for Coconut Industry Development Expansion and Enhanced Support for the Caribbean.  The project will revive unproductive trees and provide added income for smallholder farmers, coconut plantation owners, coconut processors, women and youth. 

Under the project, CARDI has done characterization of coconut trees and nuts to determine the variety and requirements for growth; established two nurseries; distributed over 2000 seedlings of the fast-growing Atlantic Tall (also called the Jamaica Tall) variety and over 200 seedlings of dwarf coconut palms. CARDI has also helped reduce the severity of the South American palm weevil infestation using  chemicals that insects naturally produce to attract other insects called pheromones and traps made of recycled plastic bottles.

Developing the Sweet Potato Industry 

Through funding by the Caribbean Development Bank (CDB), CARDI is also carrying out a sweet potato industry development project. The first part of the project entailed understanding the industry players like farmers, wholesalers, technical and financial stakeholders and gaining insight about commercial markets and demand for sweet potato and its value-added products, to ultimately identify opportunities and how improvements could be made to capitalise on them.

The second component will involve studies to determine the best locations for production based on rainfall, soil type and other factors (agroecological zone studies) and drought tolerant studies for at least five of the most commonly grown varieties in the multi-island state.

From Recovery to Resilience

While agriculture remains the most important export sector for fertile St. Vincent and the Grenadines, the importance of being able to provide food for its own population from local sources in the face of external and internal shocks is paramount. Recent emergencies have hammered home the need to find a balance between the two and to leverage research and development and financial resources to move from recovery to resilience.