Caribbean & Central America - November 2023

Caribbean countries have been called on to “accelerate and consolidate” their efforts to improve food security and reduce import dependence.

The call came in the context of Caribbean Agriculture Week, held in the Bahamas in October, and hosted by the Costa Rica-based Inter-American Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture (IICA). IICA experts say that Caribbean countries should strengthen their domestic agricultural sectors, which are particularly vulnerable to extreme weather caused by climate change. There has already been some significant progress on this front. The region is now roughly halfway towards meeting its “25 by 25” goal, first set in 2018. This calls for a 25% reduction in food imports, to be achieved by 2025.

The Bahamas’ Prime Minister Philip Davis said this represented an “enormous step forward”. He added that his government was making “unprecedented investments” in food security, improving research and infrastructure, and focusing on boosting output of local eggs and poultry. Caricom (Caribbean Community) secretary-general Carla Barnett also called for the empowerment of women and youth in agriculture. Guyana’s President Irfaan Ali said his government was investing in a food distribution hub to be located in Brazil’s northern state of Roraima.

Making sustained progress will be challenging, however. Caricom research suggests 52% of the English-speaking Caribbean currently faces food-security issues. Rising temperatures remain a substantial threat. Didacus Jules, the director general of the Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States (OECS), has warned that “Global warming is creating hell on earth for small island states – a rapid onslaught apocalypse”. There were record temperatures in the region in May-August 2023, with the heat wave expected to extend into 2024, causing aridity and increased pests and diseases. In Barbados and Jamaica 88% of all crops depend on rainwater. Dry weather may again push up Caribbean food-price inflation rates.

Inflation

In April this year annual food-price inflation stood at 66.7% in Suriname, 17.0% in Trinidad & Tobago, 10.3% in Jamaica, and 6.9% in Guyana.