Devastation by Hurricane Beryl: Region urged to utilise climate-smart agriculture as it recovers

As the region recovers and rebuilds agriculture sectors in the various countries, President Dr. Irfaan Ali is imploring that Leaders within the Caribbean Community (Caricom) utilise climate smart agriculture to increase yield in crop cultivation.
The Head of State also recommends that this method be used going forward to safeguard against destruction that can be caused by climate change, especially devasting events such as Hurricane Beryl, which has wreaked havoc in St. Vincent and the Grenadines, Barbados, St. Lucia, Grenada, Jamaica and Trinidad and Tobago.

“…I was speaking about the damage in the agricultural sector with Hurricane Beryl. All the gains we made since 2020 on the islands completely gone in 45 minutes. But what it teaches us is that climate smart is doing everything smart,” President Ali said.
Climate smart agriculture has the ability to enhance crop and livestock production, provide greater food security, fortify agricultural infrastructure against the destructive effects of global warming, and reduce the amount of greenhouse gases released into the atmosphere because of farming activities, including methane emissions from livestock, paddy rice cultivation, and synthetic fertiliser use.
The Guyanese leader, who was at the time addressing the 28th Anniversary Dinner and Awards ceremony, for the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) held at Marriott Hotel, underscored that the practice of climate smart agriculture is the most suitable method for the region, as it continues to forge ahead with plans to achieve the ‘25 by 2025’ goal.

President Ali, however, acknowledged that both the initial and long-term costs of rebuilding in the wake of the hurricane, will be devasting, given that many long-term crops that were of a high yielding variety, have been damaged.
Nevertheless, he explained that all hope has not been lost, and posited that the region as a collective must map out a way forward with ‘climate smart agriculture in the center of everything’.
“Maybe we can’t have the big mango trees that we had historically in the region, but you can still have high-yielding, prolific mango trees that are of different variety and yield, that can give you the same revenue and less susceptible to the type of wind. So, as we build back, we have to build back with all of these things taken into consideration,” the President said.
Guyana is currently chairing the Caribbean Community (Caricom) Ministerial Task Force on Food Production and Food Security, which has been driving the ‘25 by 2025’ initiative seeking to boost food production within the region to reduce food imports.
President Dr. Irfaan Ali has taken a key role in organising meetings between the Ministerial Task Force on Agriculture and international agencies, in order to trigger the rebuilding process.
In a video address on Sunday, the Head of State explained that as the lead head on agriculture in the region, he will be reaching out to multi-lateral institutions like the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) and the Inter-American Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture (IICA) for them to intervene and provide assistance to regional farmers from an early stage.
This will ensure that farmers will be granted the necessary resources and support to rebuild. As a matter of fact, the president noted that he has asked the Chair of the Ministerial Task Force this week, to convene a meeting that will include IICA, as well as the Brazilian Agricultural Research Corporation (Embrapa).
From these meetings, proposals can be made to the new Chairman of Caricom, Grenada’s Prime Minister Dickon Mitchell, whose country was actually one of those hit hardest by the hurricane.

Hurricane
Hurricane Beryl first made landfall on Monday last on Carriacou, an island in Grenada. Beryl reached a Category 5 hurricane status in the Atlantic on Monday, with peak winds of 165 mph (270 kph). In addition to Grenada and St. Vincent and the Grenadines, Beryl wreaked havoc in Barbados, St. Lucia, Jamaica and Trinidad and Tobago – countries with large Guyanese diasporas.
Over 38000 Guyanese residing in St. Vincent and the Grenadines (SVG), Barbados and Trinidad were reportedly affected by the devasting Hurricane Beryl, which continues to plough through the Caribbean with record-breaking wind speeds, causing massive destruction including loss of lives.
Beryl has killed at least ten people and disrupted economies on the various small islands, from tourism to agriculture… in particular the 25 by 2025 goals that were first championed by Guyana and President Ali, before and during his Chairmanship of CARICOM in the first part of the year.
Vision 25 by 2025 aims for the Caribbean to achieve a 25 per cent reduction in the Region’s food import bill by the year 2025. Owing to the Region’s dependency on imported foods, it faces hardships when disruptions occur. And in light of this, the intention was to formulate a sense of food stability and security… country by country, with Guyana playing a key role in helping other countries achieve greater food security. (G1)