Hurricane Beryl exacerbates Food Insecurity says CARICOM

Garfield Ekon

Staff writer

July 30, 2024 – CARICOM’s Lead Head of Government with responsibility for agriculture and food security, who is also President of Guyana, His Excellency, Dr Mohamed Irfaan Ali is concerned that Hurricane Beryl might have deal serious havoc on food in the region.

He said the significant impact caused on the agriculture sector of the Region, must be addressed in a comprehensive manner, noting that the hurricane will have diminish returns on the 25 by 2025 food security plan, which is intended to reduce the Region’s food import bill by 25 per cent by 2025.

The Category 4 hurricane affected Barbados and Saint Lucia on July 1, and went on to severely impact St. Vincent and the Grenadines and Grenada on the same day as a Category 4 hurricane. Jamaica felt its wrath on July 3. President Ali described the situation in Grenada, particularly in Carriacou and Petite Martinique as “horrific” with livestock, cash, and permanent crops being wiped out.

“The initial assessment is heart-wrenching to our farmers, to our governments, and to the people of these countries. It is heart-wrenching because of the tremendous investment, the tremendous policy commitments, and budget support that was placed in the agriculture sector. Since 2020, the investment in infrastructure, water systems, technology, crop variety, farm support, farm to market infrastructure, many of these countries would have lost all these investments,” he said.

The President added that not only is the initial investment and cost of damage concerning to him as Lead Head on Agriculture, but it is also the long-term investment costs to rebuild the infrastructure, to find resources to recapitalise the farmers.

“A lot of the crops damaged are long-term crops also.

“Seven years to maturity to get high-yielding variety, to get inter-cropping in place whilst investment is placed in permanent long-term crops. So, there are a lot of medium and long-term issues in the agriculture sector in the Region that must be addressed and addressed in a comprehensive way,” he said.  

For Prime Minister of Grenada, Hon. Dickon Mitchell, the hurricane delivered a “serious blow” to Grenada’s efforts to reduce its food import bill by 25 percent by next year, and with Government’s support, there will be a quick reboot of poultry farming, as he encouraged the use of greenhouses and shade houses to increase crop yields and production. 

“There may be some greater resilience in using technology to produce food, in particular short crops,” he said.