Agriculture stakeholders chart future in climate foresight workshop

The Ministry of Agriculture, Food Security and Enterprise is hosting a special workshop today for stakeholders in the sector to consider the long-term impacts of climate change. The one-day climate foresight workshop brings together a diverse group of about 30 representatives from government, civil society, and the private sector. The aim of the initiative is to chart a course for a resilient and sustainable agricultural sector. Participants then delved into the challenges ahead, discussing not only climate vulnerabilities but also other trends like economic shifts and technological advancements that will shape the future of farming in Belize. Melanio Pech, representing the Ministry’s Sustainable and Inclusive Belize project, says that the workshop will serve to empower farmers and improve productivity.

Melanio Pech, SAIB Project Rep, MAFSE: “The program Sustainable and Inclusive Belize is a program that is working  in terms of getting our farmers informed about climate smart agricultural technologies whereby we’re trying to get farmers capacitated in real terms of  of climate impacts what is affecting our productivity for both crops and livestock. And hence this project is here to have us here to participate, to engage in getting policies and formulas on how best we can get information for the next 10 years from here so that our farmers are better equipped with the technology that will be able to combat the impacts of climate change that are affecting agriculture productivity. So I am participating here as a stakeholder under the Ministry of Agriculture so that we can work together as in fact by Deliberating together we will be able to come up with um better ideas on how to move on so that our productivity of agriculture that is being affected by the climate impact in both pests and diseases that are really impacting our agriculture sector.”

The sugar industry, one of Belize’s largest foreign exchange earners, is one industry that has been feeling the brunt of climate change’s effects. Letticia Westby, Extension Coordinator for the Sugar Industry Research and Development Institute (SIRDI), spoke on the importance of the industry’s representation at the workshop.

Leticia Westby, Extension Coordinator, SIRDI: “For us, climate plays a major role. Sugar industry, we go from one extreme to the other. What do I mean? Drought and flooding. So if we have flooding our fields get affected. If you have drought, for example, in 2019 with the droughts, there was heavy impact with the stem borer which directly affect our sugarcane quality. And now, which is no news for no one, we have the new kid in the block which I call it which is the sugarcane wilt which the scientific name is Fusarium SP.  But there’s a complex when it comes to the Fusarium which is a pathogen, which is a soil-borne disease. What does that mean? It lives in the soil, it feeds from organic matter. And so today’s activity is to do a brainstorming session and to see, what is pending, what are the challenges and what do we need to be able to achieve those objectives? So we have a cadre of different professionals here which is very healthy in the brainstorming because perhaps we are not seeing stuff or we are seeing things from a different perspective. But then when it comes to a collective brainstorming session that’s where you can improve what you’re doing. So because at the end of the day we want to improve the livelihoods of our end beneficiary and for us at the sugar industry our end beneficiary is the cane farmers.”

The workshop was facilitated by the Caribbean Community Climate Change Center (Five Cs) and the Research Triangle Institute (RTI) International