IICA has re-assured the St Vincent government that they are keeping abreast of developments as they unfold and are prepared and committed to providing the requisite technical support to assist in the recovery of the agricultural sector in the aftermath Hurricane Beryl.
In response to Minister of Agriculture Saboto Caesar’s request for assistance for the island’s battered agriculture sector, IICA said they will be undertaking some concrete actions aimed at addressing the situation in the immediate and short term with a view to yielding long-term impactful results.
These include the following key interventions:
- Making IICA’s technical team available to you to provide the necessary support to bolster the recovery process. This team, comprising experts with experience in damage assessment and the recovery of food production systems, will be led by Mr. Gregg Rawlins, IICA Representative in the Eastern Caribbean States and supported by Mr. Michael Dalton, IICA Technical Specialist in your country who will work closely with the local team in your Ministry to ensure IICA’s support is targeted and relevant;
- The inclusion of a presentation of a report to members of the Executive Committee on the Climate Emergency in the Caribbean emanating from the aftermath of Hurricane Beryl. Given the effects of the hurricane in St. Vincent and the Grenadines, we will be grateful if you would accept an invitation to present such a report on July 24thas the first agenda item at the upcoming meeting;
- The launching of the Hemispheric Fund for Agricultural Resilience and Sustainability at the said Executive Committee meeting to facilitate, inter alia, the collection and attraction of external resources to support Member States of the Caribbean with limited economic capacity and fiscal space. IICA will also make a pledge of financial resource to symbolize the operationalization of the Fund;
- Establishing a Seed Bank for the Americas to ensure a large collection of seeds that will facilitate resilience crops in the event of disasters and to preserve genetic diversity for the future; and
- Working closely with the OECS Commission to develop and provide systematized real-time data and information on the potential risks posed by predicted hurricanes and other severe climatic conditions to the agriculture sector within the OECS region. This will be done over the coming 4 weeks through the recently launched digital tool called OPSAa (Observatory of Public Policies for Agrifood Systems)
Preliminary findings reveal between 80% and 100% destruction of crops such as bananas, plantains, coconuts, avocados, and a variety of vegetables. Many of these crops were ready for market, leaving the livelihoods of farmers in jeopardy.