Donovan R. Campbell

Climate Change, Drought, and Jamaican Agriculture: Local Knowledge and the Climate Record

The purpose of this study is to reach a basic understanding of drought and climate change in southwestern Jamaica through an integration of local knowledge and perception of drought and its physical characteristics manifested in remotely sensed precipitation and vegetation data. Local knowledge and perception are investigated through a survey of sixty farmers in St. Elizabeth Parish and physical characteristics of drought are examined through statistical analysis of satellite precipitation and vegetation vigor time series. The survey indicates that most farmers are concerned about an increase in drought occurrence. Satellite estimates of rainfall and vegetation vigor for St. Elizabeth Parish support this perception and suggest that severe drought events are becoming more frequent. The satellite precipitation time series also suggest that the early growing season is becoming drier as compared to the primary growing season, especially since 1991. This recent divergence in growing season moisture conditions might add to farmers’ observations that drought is becoming more prevalent. Consequently, Jamaican farmers perceptions of drought are not driven by magnitude and frequency of dry months alone but rather by the difference between growing seasons. Any development of drought adaption and mitigation plans for this area must not focus solely on drought; it must also compare moisture conditions between months and seasons to be effective.

Tourism, Local Agriculture, and Food Security in the Caribbean

Contemporary trends in the global political economy, particularly as they pertain to trade liberalization and the reshaping of global food chains, have made Caribbean states more aware of the need to reform their agricultural sectors in order to be competitive and to enhance food security. One area of concern is the weak links between the tourism industries of the CARICOM countries and their agricultural sectors, especially the small-scale food-producing sector. Local tourism is booming, while local agriculture stagnates and declines (Thomas-Hope and Jardine-Comrie, 2007; Dodman and Rhiney, 2008). This means that symbiotic relationships between the two sectors are at best weak, and in the specific context of food production and food security, the tourism industry does very little to stimulate local agriculture. This is a long-standing contradiction as evidenced by research in the 1970s and 1980s (see Momsen, 1972; Belisle, 1983, 1984). There have been some suggestions that in the past 20 years or so, the situation has improved (Momsen, 1998; Torres, 2003; Conway, 2004; Rhiney, 2009; Timms, 2006), but recent research indicates that we have a long way to go in getting local foods into hotel kitchens in a significant way (Rhiney, 2009; Ramsee-Singh, 2006: Timms. 2006).

Decision-Making among Small-Scale Food Farmers in the Caribbean

We argue that in order to achieve greater food security and food self-sufficiency in the Caribbean, the capacity of the small-scale farming sector to produce more must be enhanced and that governments of the region must play a more central role in this regard. In order to be effective, governments and policy-makers must have a better sense of the environment in which small-scale farmers operate. This includes the decision environment in which decisions about what to plant, where, when, how, and how much are made. Decisions about marketing and distribution are also being made by farmers with implications for their livelihood and food security. Studying the decision-making framework of small-scale food farmers in the Caribbean—indeed in the tropics—is important as 90 percent of food in rural areas of the developing world is produced by such farmers (Josette Sheeran—World Food Program, 2009). An understanding of small-scale farmers’ decision-making process can shed light on their activities and inform policy-making.

Hazard Mitigation: Caribbean Small-Scale Farmers’ Coping and Adaptation Strategies for Hurricanes and Drought

This chapter explores the adaptation and coping strategies of Caribbean smallholder farmers against hurricanes and droughts. The vulnerability of the agriculture sector to both climate change and climate variability is well established (Parry et al., 2004; Slingo et al., 2005). The general consensus is that agricultural productivity will be reduced as a result of changes in temperature and rainfall (Slingo et al., 2005) and the increasing frequency of extreme meteorological events.

Factors Influencing Innovation Adoption among Small-Scale Farmers in the Caribbean

There is a tendency to stereotype Caribbean small-scale farmers and tropical small-scale farmers, more generally, as being resistant to change and innovations. This negative stereotype assumes that the decision of farmers to not adopt an innovation has no rational basis and is due mainly to apathy and a general resistance to change. But the situation is far more complex and small-scale farmers can be innovative. It might even be argued that, generally speaking, the decisions of farmers not to adopt an innovation, to postpone adopting an innovation, or to discontinue the use of a new practice is based on rational considerations in the circumstances of the farmers (Beckford, 2000,2002; Collymore, 1984, 1985; Spence, 1989, 1996; Davis-Morrison and Barker, 1997). Furthermore, there are ample examples that small-scale farmers are engaged in farm-level experimentation and innovation on a daily basis and that this is critical to their survival.

The Small-Scale Food Farming Sector in the Caribbean: Food Production and the Caribbean Peasantry

The responsibility of producing food crops in the Caribbean falls mainly on the shoulders of thousands of small-scale farmers who cultivate small holdings on mostly marginal lands in the interior hilly areas, certain river valleys and flood plains, and the dry southern coastal plains. Most farmers still use the same cultivation methods that were used hundreds of years ago. Most food products are sold, processed, resold, and consumed locally, thus providing the foundation for people’s nutrition, incomes, and livelihoods and contributing to rural and national development (Beckford and Bailey, 2009). The small-scale food producers have been able to grow food crops despite enormous challenges facing them(these challenges have been documented by McGregor et al., 2009; Campbell and Beckford, 2009; Beckford and Bailey, 2009; Beckford, 2009; Barker and Beckford, 2008; Beckford et al., 2007). The significance of agriculture in the Caribbean is historical and extends beyond just satisfying household needs. Agriculture’s contribution is indispensable to national, community, and household food security. In the 1970s, agricultural policy shifted its focus on food self-sufficiency, as a result of which domestic food production and consumption of locally grown foods were prioritized. Thus, agriculture—which had historically been the backbone of the economy—and the small-scale domestic food sector—which had always been the driver of food security—became even more important.

Urban Agriculture for Food Security in the Caribbean

The issue of urban agriculture has become increasingly significant in food security strategy globally as the world’s urban population (especially in developing countries) continues to climb rapidly and urban poverty spirals. It is thought that if current trends continue by the year 2020, more poor and undernourished people in developing countries will live in cities than in the countryside (Food and Agricultural Organization, 2001). Following the lead of the FAO, many countries and municipalities are making urban and periurban agriculture (UPA) an integral part of their food security and poverty reduction strategy. In 1994 the FAO launched the Special Program for Food Security (SPFS), a multidisciplinary program that integrates the perspectives of many academic disciplines to promote a holistic approach to food security. This approach was endorsed by world leaders at the World Food Summit in 1996 (FAO, 2001). A major component of the SPFS design is an element of UPA aimed at improving access to food for people living in (urban) and around cities (peri-urban).

Improving Food Security in the Caribbean: Building Capacity in Local Small-Scale Farming Systems

The food security challenges of the Caribbean, and the developing world more generally, cannot be solved by dependence upon food imports. Although globally there is enough food to feed everyone, world hunger remains a dire problem. Our view is that to achieve real food security, developing countries must become more food self-sufficient by increasing productivity, diversifying and expanding the range of crops with a focus on maximizing the use of traditional foods, reducing postharvest losses, improving the marketing and distribution of farm produce, promoting urban agriculture, and increasing women’s participation in the food security endeavor. Our position is framed within the general principles of food sovereignty (McMichael, 2009b), or as some prefer, food democracy (Lang, 2009a). Food sovereignty speaks to the right of local farmers and peoples to exert more control over food and agriculture (Beckford and Bailey, 2009). Windfuhr and Jonsen (2005) described food sovereignty as a platform for rural revitalization at the global level based on equitable distribution of resources, farmers having control over resources, and the ability to supply healthy, local food. A food sovereignty approach advocates the right of people to be able to protect and regulate domestic agriculture and trade in order to achieve sustainable development goals: to determine the extent to which they want to be self-reliant and to restrict dumping of products in their markets.

Women, Agriculture, and Food Security in the Caribbean

Sustainable food security in the Caribbean requires the effective participation of women in food production. This is significant in the context of the dimensions of availability, access, and supply of nutritious foods and the implications for the overall household food security. There are many commercial female farmers in the Caribbean, but women are mainly involved in the marketing and distribution of food as they make up a disproportionate amount of sellers in the local produce markets across the region. The strategic participation of women in food production could be effective for addressing food security and nutrition at the household level. The aim would be to increase supplies of nutritious foods for their households. Women should also receive training in food handling and preparation to maximize the nutritional value of their families’ meals. A recent project by the International Development Research Center (IDRC) in Lebanon speaks to the importance of women in food security and nutrition (Boothroyd, 2010).

Sustainable Agriculture and Domestic Food Production: Adaptation and Experimentation on Small-Scale Food Farms in the Caribbean

Research speaks to the tendency to see small-scale farmers in the tropics as bounded by tradition, conservative, resistant to change, lacking in innovativeness, and even lazy both in official pronouncements and in academic discourse (Richards, 1985; Chambers, 1989; Rhoades, 1989). One reason for this is the chasm in communication between farmers, on one hand, and researchers unfamiliar with the rationale for traditional agricultural practices, on the other, a situation compounded by the lack of historical records. Rhoades (1989) explains this situation saying that farmers as a rule do not document their activities and accomplishments and do not write about their discoveries and innovations. Moreover, the relative successes of the Green Revolution technology, encouraging the view that Western science and technology can solve all problems, has not only served to marginalize the ongoing efforts and diverse productions of small-scale farmers, but has also led to numerous instances of counterproductive interventions in a variety of agricultural and food-related problems in developing economies (Jones and Carswell, 2004). Carswell (2004) argues that agricultural narratives developed in colonial discourses continue to implicitly blame small farmers for poor cultivation techniques and environmental degradation, and need to be challenged in the face of mounting contradictory evidence. In the Caribbean, for example, the entire production of domestic food crops is attributed to small-scale farmers, which underscores their significance in regional food security.