Presentation by Mr. Jethro Greene,
Chief Coordinator of the Caribbean Farmers Network (CaFAN)
About CaFAN
Formed in 2002 and legally registered in 2007, the Caribbean Farmers Network (CaFAN) is a regional network of farmers’ associations and NGOs representing over 500,000 farmers in 15 countries. With a secretariat in St. Vincent and the Grenadines, CaFAN works to strengthen producer groups across the Caribbean.
CaFAN’s mission is to enhance Caribbean food and nutrition security, foreign exchange earnings and foreign savings, by repositioning agriculture through the capacity building of farmers and he institutional strengthening of farmers organisations.
Its members are directly involved in production and marketing for the domestic, regional and extra regional markets. They are also involved in farmers training, promotion of nutritional Caribbean foods, market access, agro-processing and value addition, testing of agronomic practices and organic farming.
The CaFAN’s Secretariat is mandated to speak on behalf of its membership and to develop programmes and projects aimed at improving livelihoods. CaFAN also focuses on market led sustainable mechanisms and structures, working in collaboration with all stakeholders in the agriculture sector to the strategic advantage of its farmers.
CaFAN assists with policy advocacy with its national, regional and international partners, which can result in better-crafted programs and projects to create sustainable opportunities for youth in agribusinesses. The focus on youth supports the regional policy thrust led by CARICOM through the Caribbean Community Common Agricultural Policy (CCAP). This policy is built on five key pillars, the fourth of which was advocated by the CaFAN Secretariat – Youth and Rural Modernization. Under this pillar, CaFAN has been advocating for modern amenities and infrastructure in rural communities that will stem the rural to urban drift.
CaFAN’s focus on Holistic Agriculture
CaFAN’s focus on Agriculture is beyond just food security. CaFAN believes that Agriculture should be linked to providing solutions to the various other challenges including, unemployment, high national debts, foreign resource earning and overall economic growth and social growth and stability.
Why the focus on Small Farm Families?
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Small farm families represent a key platform for social and economic stability.
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Making them viable business will help to promote increased employment, curtailing rural urban migration, reduce poverty and creating greater food and nutrition security.
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Access to market is key to promoting smallholders viability for sustainable business enterprise.
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Strengthening this key sector by supporting farmers / small holders groups and clusters is a key strategy for them to gain economies of scale and compete in the global environment.
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Large farmers will always have better access to financing and technical support.
Linkages
We have a tendency to focus services within the regional plan without looking at strategic linkages. For example, since the decline in production of traditional commodities such as bananas, rice and sugar, the Caribbean region has been largely dependent on tourism and services. But this focus on tourism and services should not lead to the death of agriculture as a sector. Tourism provides an excellent opportunity to boosting agriculture. Currently, agriculture is on the up and this is largely as a result of the contribution of small-scale farmers, which more than half of them are women. Over the last 10 years or so, small-scale farmers have found solace in vegetable, fruit and root crop production. These farmers have refocused their efforts to supplying domestic markets and sending surplus to regional markets. In so doing, they have been playing a key role in moving the Caribbean territories closer to achieving food security.
Other important linkages of agriculture include:
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Export markets - tertiary exchange;
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Employment;
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Food as nutrition security;
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Conservation and environmental preservation. Agriculture has a very positive or negative impact on the environment and as such we should be looking to promote environmentally sound practices in Agriculture;
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Foreign exchange earning to help reduce foreign debt;
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Poverty alleviation;
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Rural modernization and focus on youth to prevent rural urban migration;
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Facilitate the strengthening of existing CAFAN farmers' groups and clusters and ensuring technical and financial assistance are available to farmers for disaster risk management mitigation.
Placing Agriculture at the center of social and economic development of the region would afford us the advantages of building sustainable growth models which will be under our control.
The Caribbean Food & Nutrition Security Agenda
The Issues
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There is an apparent disparity between the sheer volume of proposals and policies to advance food and nutrition security in the Caribbean Region and their traction to advance this agenda at the national level. Several policy framework and related food and nutrition security policies exist at the Regional level (e.g., the Regional Transformation Program (RTP); The Jagdeo Initiative; The Liliendaal Declaration; the Regional Food & Nutrition Security Policy and Action Plan; The Regional Agri-Business Strategy; etc.). Similarly, many countries have their national agriculture policy and strategy, national food and nutrition policy and action plan both of which are situated within these countries national development plans. Both at the Regional and National Levels these policy framework and related policies and action plans have been in existence for many decades.
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Despite (1) above, CARICOM countries, with the exception of Guyana and Belize, are net food importers. Indeed, the regional food import bill is now in excess of US 5billion, with our major food imports being food from animals (~US$900M/yr), wheat. Maize and derived products (~US $500M/yr), processed foods (~US$500M/yr), which, together account for over 40% of the region’s food imports. In effect, the region has not solved its agricultural supply-side problems.
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Poverty is a serious problem and cannot be characterized as existing in pockets in the countries. Absolute poverty rates (inability of individuals to meet food and non-food needs), average 11-28% in the region. Additionally, another 10-20% of the population is vulnerable to poverty, i.e., are at risk of falling below some given poverty threshold should an unanticipated event such as a natural disaster or economic shock were to occur).
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The poor are now moving are moving out from urban into the peri-urban areas and from rural to parishes surrounding the capital parish;
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Children (0-14, and young adolescent/teenagers, 15-19) and the “working poor” (persons who are working but below the poverty line), are disproportionately represented in the poverty rates. This has serious implications for cognition, educational achievement/certification and inter-generational transfer of poverty;
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Well-intentioned national poverty alleviation programs are stymied by frequent shocks—natural disasters, world economy crises, etc.;
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Nutrition/food-related chronic non-communicable diseases (NCDs) are the main public health problems in the region. It has been estimated that if the region were to treat just two of these diseases (diabetes and hypertension), the direst cost (doctors’ fees, hospitalization and medications) will be more than 60% of what the region is currently spending on public health. These NCDs are linked to hunger, poverty, inappropriate diets (low in fruits and vegetables and high in fats, oils, salt and sweeteners), and lifestyle choices (low physical activity, smoking and alcohol use).
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The issues raised in 2-4 above reveal that all four components of food and nutrition security (food availability, access, consumption/utilization and stability), in the Caribbean are compromised.
The Way Forward
The responsibility to overcome poverty, hunger, food insecurity and malnutrition ultimately lies ultimately with the individual. But, as elsewhere, there are significant inequalities in health, incomes, education, governance, etc., in CARICOM countries. This makes policies operationalized into targeted interventions imperative, with specific roles for the international community, regional agencies and national governments. At the minimum, international support both at the regional and national levels, must exercise greater diligence (at program development, monitoring and evaluation stages), to ensure that funds allocated are efficiently utilized to achieve program outcomes. Relatedly, the international community needs to scale up their technical and financial assistance to support the region’s agriculture, farmers and the population generally. National governments/policy makers must exercise similar diligence and also address in a focused and deliberate way the issues raised in 1-5 above.
Advantages
Over the last few years, CAFAN noted the renewed emphasis of key players in the Regional Agriculture sectors who are working together to strengthen agriculture within the Region with CARICOM leading by creating the Policy Frameworks such as the Regional Food and Nutrition Security Policy (RFNS) and the Community Agricultural Policy (CAPS).
CaFAN sat on both technical working committees and were pleased that the suggestions of the farmers/farmers organisations were included in the final policy document. In fact, CaFAN recommended the fourth pillar of the CAP; Youth and Rural Modernization to help address some of the issues affecting Youth and Women in the sector. The pillar seeks to “promote the modernization of rural communities by improving the quality of life through increasing opportunities in agribusiness, strengthening institutions supporting agribusiness and community development at all levels and building social Capital in rural communities”, and targeting youth and women especially.
Currently, CaFAN has a one year project with the Technical Centre for Agricultural and Rural Cooperation (CTA) to help contribute to the design and effective implementation of the CAP Youth and Rural Modernization pillar by getting inputs from regional youths. Several activities have already taken place and the recommendations will be presented to COTED and the Alliance at the upcoming Caribbean Week of Agriculture 2013.
CaFAN commends the high level of collaboration amongst the key regional and international agriculture institutions and organizations working within the region - FAO, CARDI, IICA, CTA, CEDEMA, OECS and the Universities who are making it easier for organizations like CaFAN and other farmers organization to see greater opportunities for growth and development thought agriculture. This is certainly a great movement to build on.
Jethro Greene
Chief Coordinator
Caribbean Farmers Network (CaFAN)
Tel: 784 453 1004
cell 1784-4953020
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SKYPE jethro.greene
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Fax: 784 453 1239
Email: [email protected]
Website: www.caribbeanfarmers.org
Jethro Greene